New Telegraph

How a female friend made me dump football for athletics, by physically-challenged athlete

Late Ajibola Adeoye remained the country’s best performer at the Paralympics Games after his achievement at the Barcelona ‘92 Games, a feat he repeated four years later in Atlanta. Athletics, a sport that forms a huge part of Nigerian sportsmen and women’s DNA, provided its very first medals at the Paralympics at the Barcelona Games when Adeoye romped to two gold medals after winning the men’s T46 100m (10.72secs) and 200m (21.83secs) in a then World Record (WR), which still stands as the African Record (AR).

At the 1996 Summer Paralympics, he defended both sprint titles and won a silver medal in the long jump. Given Nigeria’s history in the sprints at the Olympics, Ajibola’s victory at Atlanta ’96 was meant to usher in years of dominance in the Paralympic sprints.

That idea seems fanciful now, particularly given that the last time a Nigerian sprinter won a medal on the track at the Paralympics was when Adekunle Adesoji clinched Silver in the men’s’ T12 at the London 2012 Paralympics. This situation leaves an awkward question hanging in the air for Nigeria heading into the Tokyo Paralympics: If the country going to challenge for medals in the sprints, when so much seems to be in a flux, who can mount up a challenge? However, the narrative is about to change as Making of Champions star, Ifeanyi Christian, has made up his mind to write the name of the country in Gold later in the year at the Games.

Christian has been working his socks off in order to break the African Record (AR) held by Adeoye while also winning medals for the country. “It will be a dream come true for me after suffering many disappointments in the past, especially not going to the Commonwealth Games in 2018,” he said.

“This will be my very first Paralympics and I hope to do Nigeria proud in Tokyo.” At Christian’s first competition abroad in 2019, he won three gold medals in the T46 100m, 200m, and 400m at the World Para- Athletics Grand Prix in Tunis, qualifying for the 2019 World Para-Athletics Championships in Dubai where he was a 100m finalist.

He has more or less already qualified for the Paralympics. In the 100m, he is ranked in the Top 10 for all three of his events globally, so his Paralympic qualification is in the bag. His Personal Best (PB) in the 100m/200m speaks volumes about his level of improvement, having just competed for the first time internationally two years ago. With his 11.04secs clocking in the 100m in Tunis, he isn’t far away from breaking Ajibola’s AR in the event.

The 200m record seems not far-fetched for Christian having chalked up 22.20secs clocking in Tunis. With the dearth of competitions for physically- challenged athletes in Nigeria, Christian had to resort to keeping himself fit and in shape at meets for non-disabled athletes, although any times set in such competitions will not be recognised by the Paralympic Committee. In his first competition in 2021, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All-Comers meet in Akure, Christian finished 3rd in Heat 1 of the men’s 400m with a time of 50.20s. This is certainly not a bad way to open the season.

Going back to how his career started, the athlete started off as a footballer as he always downplayed his disability while trying hard to relate with his able-bodied mates. The Imo State-born athlete was not born with disability, but an accident led to him having one hand, instead of wallowing in self-pity, he became fully involved in sport and path way for his name to be known in the world.

His journey into track and field came after a chance meeting with a coach towards the 2012 National Sports Festival in Lagos. “I went to visit my aunt at her shop in Akwa Ibom when this lady (Idongesit Asuquo Daniel) saw me and called me. She asked me if I could run. I told her I could, so she introduced me to a coach immediately. That was the moment I started out professionally.”

He added that the conversation led him into the National sport Festival in 2012, the coach got Ifeanyi into the Akwa Ibom team where he joined the other athletes in camp, competing on bare feet in the build up to Eko 2012. Despite the challenges, he still won a medal.

He got to use a pair of spikes for the first time at the festival and was able to give a good account of himself at the competition, winning a Silver medal in the 200m men’s T46 event. Despite his feat at Eko 2012, he was neglected by the National team selectors and this neglect continued towards the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Ifeanyi Christian has always put in the work required to get him to the top. He continued to put in the work and churn out impressive results in competitions on the home front.

He, however, had to shoulder a lot of neglect and frustration from National team selectors. Despite being the best athlete in the T46 100m, 200m, 400m categories at the 2018 Commonwealth Games trials in Abuja, Christian was not selected among the final list of athletes who made the team to Gold Coast. Speaking on the disappointment, he said: “Actually, Commonwealth Games wasn’t the first, my first National trials were in 2014.

“I won but I wasn’t selected for the tournament which was in Dubai but I didn’t give up. Then in 2015, at the Africa Games Trials, I also won the 400m event and I was dropped for the person who emerged 2nd behind me.” After innumerable disappointments in the past years despite his impressive record in several National team trials, Christian got a bit of respite when he became the first paraathlete to join Making of Champions Track Club (MoC) in 2019, the biggest track club in the country.

Joining MoC Track Club gave Christian access to training under the tutelage of MoC Track Club’s Olympic medallists, coaches Deji Aliu and Glory Alozie, ensuring that his talent will be harnessed so he could reach the pinnacle of his career.

The move provided a new lease of life for the sprinter. MoC’s Christian made the country proud on his international debut, winning three gold medals for Nigeria at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Tunis. Christian won a gold medal on each day of the competition, starting with the 100m where he clocked a time of 11.04secs to win his race.

His time places him as joint No. 7 in the world in 2019 in the T46/T47 category. He laced his spikes the following day in the 200m, racing to a new Personal Best (PB) of 22.20secs, thereby bettering his former lifetime best of 22.85s. His new PB ranked him as No.2 in the world in the T46 class and No.4 in the T46/47 combined class in 2019. On the final day of the Grand Prix, Christian once again raced to another PB of 49.56secs to strike gold.

His time saw him finish 8th in the rankings in 2019. That same year, Christian was a finalist in the T46 100m at the World Paralympics Championships in Dubai. Christian has broken the ice and cemented his standing as the fastest para-athlete in Nigeria. The next port of call for him is to dominate the African scene and then the world stage even as the Tokyo Paralympics beckons.

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