By Yemi Babalola, Lagos.
Our amazon for this week is no other than sprint star Falilat Ogunkoya. Born prematurely and the last of her mother, in a family of four children, on December 5, 1968 in Ode-Lemo in Ogun State. This was a cos of worry for her mother when Falilat began showing interest in athletics at an early stage due to the circumstances surrounding her birth. Nevertheless, Falilat did not let that deter her as she still went into sport regardless.
Falilat Ogunkoya first cut her teeth as an athletic sprinter in 1980 when she was barely 12 years. She emerged the best runner in All Secondary School Competition held in Sagamu in that year. She attended Remo Secondary School, Ogun state, represented the school in track and field events, and won many medals in competitions.
Falilat proceeded to the Teachers Training College for further studies and continued with athletics and there were so many inter-collegiate competitions where she won most races she participated in representing Ogun state. In 1985, she repeated the same feat at the National Sports Festival in Ilorin Kwara State, where she won four gold medals.
In 1986, at the first ever World Junior Championships, Falilat became the World Junior Champion in Athens, Greece she won the Gold medals in the 200 meters race and Bronze medal in the 4×100 meters relay. After which Falilat traveled to the United States at the age of 18 on scholarship to continue her education. She got scholarship offers from three universities to study Fitness Management. Mississippi, Ohio and Alabama state universities wanted her to study a degree course. Falilat eventually opted for Mississippi State University because the programme offered to her suited her.
In 1987 at the All-African games held in Nairobi Kenya, where Nigeria came third on the overall medal table, Falilat won Silver medals in the 200 meters and 400 meters races respectively. She continued this feat at the 1988 African championships held in Annaba, Algeria she won the Gold medal for the 299 meters race and won Silver at the 100 meters race losing to compatriot Mary Onyali by 26 seconds.
The African championships on home soil Lagos in 1989 saw Falilat winning Gold medal in the 400 meters race and once again losing Gold to Mary Onyali in the 200 meters race and settling for Silver in the event. After which she took a brief break from the tracks before returning at the All-African Games in 1995, where she won Silver medal in the 400 meters race held in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The highlight of her sprinting career came at the 1996 Olympics, which is a memorable Olympics for Nigerians as a whole. At the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Falilat won Silver medal alongside compatriots, Olabisi Afolabi, Fatima Yusuf, and Charity Opara in the 4×400 meters relay. Also winning a Bronze medal in the 400 meters race. This made her become the first was person in the history of the Mississippi State University to win an individual Olympic medal and her 49.10 seconds African record remains unbroken to this moment.
Despite this monumental achievement in her career at this period, she had a bittersweet mood as two months before the Olympics event she lost her mother, which was why she dedicated her medals to her late mother after winning them.
Falilat was once married to her coach Tony Osheku who played a pivotal role in her rise on the tracks but the relationship did not work out but they both share a son named after her first husband. She is currently married to Prof. Seun Omotayo. She is very much active in the development of the track events and very vocal about the challenges of athletics in Nigeria.
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