Nigeria’s World Championships Facts: Can Godfred Step into Yusuf Alli’s Big Shoes?
Nigeria used to be a jumps nation, especially among our men. On the African continent, our men once dominated, from making the finals of the Commonwealth Games to becoming the first nation to produce a Commonwealth Games champion in Emmanuel Ifeajuna (High Jump).
Violet Odogwu made history as the first Black African woman to win a Commonwealth Games medal.
Apart from the women who have soared to the highest level, winning an Olympic gold and four long jump medals at the World Championships, indoors and out, our men have gone quiet until Charles Godfred rose and landed with a hope of rebirth, as it were.
Godfred will be the lone Nigerian male long jumper in Tokyo, Japan, where the World Championships will be making its 20th stop. He is the first Nigerian registered for the competition since 2011, when Stanley Gbagbeke failed to show up at the long jump pit at the Daegu Stadium in Daegu, South Korea.
Gbagbeke was actually the last Nigerian to compete in the event, finishing 27th in the overall qualifiers with his 7.82m leap.
That is not the act Nigerians want Godfred to follow. They want him to follow in the footsteps of Yusuf Alli, the Nigerian record holder, who leapt into the final in his debut at the Championships.
Alli came into the Championships in Helsinki, Finland fresh off his conquest at the World University Games in Edmonton that year.
Godfred is also a student-athlete going to his first World Championships and has hit the 8m mark (8.10m) for the second successive year.
Can he repeat Alli’s feat and become the fourth Nigerian man after Alli (1983 and 1987), Paul Emordi (1987), and George Ogbeide (1991) to qualify for the final of the event?
Interestingly, while Alli is the only one to make it to the top eight in the final, Emordi holds the longest jump (8.14m) by a Nigerian in the history of the Championships.
Godfred will also be looking to become the fourth Nigerian to jump 8m in the history of the Championships after Alli (8.11m), Emordi (8.14m), and Ogbeide (8.02m).
