Olympic Gold medallist, Enee-Efiok Udo-Obong the anchor leg of Team Nigeria’s 4x400m relay squad at the Sydney Olympics 13 years ago, on Sunday recounted the factors that led to the team’s victorious outing.
Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Sport on Sunday, Udo-Obong said his team felt honoured to have been recognized by the Federal government insisting that what every sportsman look forward to after a competition is recognitions.
13 years after Nigeria’s 4x400m men relay team won silver that eventually got upgraded to gold following the disqualification of Team USA for dope infractions at the Sydney Olympic Games, President Goodluck Jonathan; last week rewarded the six quarter milers and their two handlers for the feat.
Each of the six athletes, namely, Enee-Efiok Udo-Obong, Jude Monye, Clement Chukwu, Nduka Awazie, Fidelis Gadzama and the late Sunday Bada got rewarded with N5million respectively while their coaches, Innocent Egbunike and Solomon Abari were N7 million richer.
Bada, who died on December 12, 2011, was represented by his wife, Adesumbo, at the event which held at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
In addition to the cash, all of them will in due course be awarded national honours for winning the Sydney Olympic gold medal for Nigeria.
“When you waited 13 years to be recognized by your country, like they say it can be delayed, it can’t be denied and we felt very honoured,” Udo-Obong said.
Recall that it was Udo-Obong that Bada handed the baton in that race which has now produced Nigeria’s third Olympic gold.