After traveling for over 60 hours from Nigeria to Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, for the 2019 CAA U-18 and U-20 championships, Enoch Adegoke, returned to the country to take part in the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (International University Sports Federation) trials at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, where he won the men 100m to add to the one he won in Abidjan.
In an interview with our correspondent, Adegoke says sprinters in the country now believe that they can run a sub 10secs, after what Divine Oduduru did recently:
How does it feel to win the 100m and straight at the CAA U-20 championship and, and now, to be part of the FISU trials?
It was not an easy task for me at all, but with hard work, my coach and God, I was able to achieve the result; that is, winning the 100m. I didn’t take it lightly because no race is easy either international or local meets.
How difficult was it for you and the other athletes traveling to Abidjan, getting there less than 24 hours to the competition, and still to be able to compete?
I don’t even know what to say about the trip! All I can say is, it was a very difficult journey for everyone, but we just had to give it our all.
Traveling for over two days wasn’t easy at all, but we had to get the result; and that was what we did as a team.
What was the motivation for you in Abidjan?
I will say it was the love of the game. That was what made some of us travel for the competition and also, because most of us were looking for action.
We believed that going for the junior championship will give us another opportunity to showcase our talent, especially against some of our mates across the continent.
We have few competitions to participate in each year, and getting such opportunity, we needed to embrace it and that was just the motivating factor for us.
Every athlete wants to run very fast and what Oduduru achieved recently has given us the belief that we can all achieve same
In 2015, some top athletes emerged from the country after the Africa Junior championships. The likes of Divine Oduduru, Ese Brume, Tobi Amusan, among others and they have been doing well since then. Do we see such a new generation from the current team that just returned from Abidjan?
Yes we have the opportunity to be the new generation for the country because champions emerge every time.
Oduduru recently ran a sub 10secs, and you as a junior already ran 10.19secs and recently 10secs flat, although hand-timed. Do you see yourself running sub 10secs soon?
Every athlete wants to run very fast and what Oduduru achieved recently has given us the belief that we can all achieve same. It was good news for all of us in the country and he already set a standard for us all.
You are part of the relay team going to Yokohama, Japan for the World Relay. What is your target?
The main target for me as an individual and for us as a team will be to win something and qualify for the World Championships because we can easily qualify Nigeria with a podium finish in Japan. So, we are going to work so hard to achieve that.
