Tokyo 2020 Olympics- bound Enoch Olaoluwa Adegoke has revealed how his athletics career was turned around with the intervention of Nigeria’s Minister of Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare.
Adegoke stormed to a new Personal Best (PB) of 10.00s (+1.2) to win the men’s 100m at the 2021 Nigerian Olympic Trials and Invitational Relays held at the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. This feat qualified him for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games which holds in Japan
The Igbeti, Oyo State-born athlete said that since the Minister adopted him in the Adopt-A- Talent initiative of the Federal Ministry of Sports, he has been able to leverage on the opportunities he got from the initiative to hone his skills, travelled to participate in various meets across the world for more exposure and experience in the sport.
Sports Minister Dare adopted the young boy with the sum of $10,000
“It has been really awesome for me knowing fully well that immediately after the Honourable Minister adopted me, that was the tonic I needed to give out my best in the track and field event.
“As you can see, I just emerged winner in the race here in Lagos and recall that we went to the United States for the preparations for the Olympics, everything has been working perfectly well and you know we needed money for the camping and the Minister made it available for me by adopting me. This means all I needed for the training, food, coaches and the rest were taken care of by the Minister,” he told the Eagle Voice
“I appreciate him for giving me the opportunity to be at my best. He adopted me with sum of 10,000 US Dollars. Aside myself, the Minister has been supportive to the athletes generally and he is a motivator to everyone. He visited us in the United States and he’s also here at the National Open trials. This shows his passion and interest and the fact that he cares about our success. All we can do is reciprocate his gesture with a podium performance in Tokyo.”
Adegoke ran a time of 10.00s to claim victory ahead of Usheoritse Itsekiri who ran 10.07s to place second. Ogho-Oghene Egwero placed third in 10.09s.
He is the 12th Nigerian athlete to qualify for the Olympics in the track and field event.
He won gold medal in the 100m race at the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival in Benin last April, while the former junior international also won the AFN All Comers in January where he ran 10.16seconds in the men’s 100m.
The performance at the All Comers with a legal wind of +0.8 was also the world-leading time for the 2021 season.
Born 8 March 2000), Adegoke is a Nigerian sprinter. He competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in both the 100 metres and the 4×100 metres relay. In the 100 metres Adegoke won both his heat and semi-final to progress to the final where he finished seventh in a time of 10.35 seconds, 0.32 seconds behind gold medalist Akani Simbine from South Africa. In the 4×100 metres relay he was part of a Nigerian team that qualified for the final only to be disqualified from it.
