Daily Trust - the online edition

Africa’s 100m record holder, Olusoji Adetokunboh Fasuba will lead a strong Nigerian attack on the medals of the 16th African Athletics Championships which starts this morning at the National Stadium in Addis Ababa.

The Algiers 2007 All Africa Games champion is the Cham-pionships’ defending 100m champion and he is tipped to become the first sprinter in the history of the championships to win the 100m title three times back-to-back.

The Ekiti-born sprinter won the titles in 2004 and 2006 to equal the back-to-back feats set by Ernest Obeng of Ghana and the Nigerian duo of Chidi Imoh and Seun Ogunkoya.

Fasuba is expected to build not only on his total dominance of the African sprint scene since 2004 when he won the title in Congo Brazzaville, but also his success at the world stage where only last March he became the first African to win the 60m gold at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia.

Even if the unthinkable happens tomorrow when the final is run, Nigeria can still count on the duo of 2002 IAAF World Cup 100m winner, Uchenna Emedolu and Uche Isaac who ran in the 60m final of the IAAF World Indoors last March in his first attempt to ensure Nigeria retains the gold.

With the outdoor season relatively young, the 9.94 championships record set in 1998 by Seun Ogunkoya is expected to survive Fasuba’s charge down the eight lane track in the final.

Like in the men’s 100m where Fasuba is expected to win the gold, the women’s event should also have a Nigerian winner following the impressive performance of USA-based Damola Osayomi last year at the All Africa Games in Algiers.

Osayomi won the sprint double at the Games to announce her arrival on the African sprint scene as the able successor to her mentor and idol, the irrepressible Mary Onyali-Omagbemi who ruled the African sprint scene for well over a decade.

On current form, Osayomi is the odds on favourite to win and she is coming to the champion-ships as the African leader with 11.18.

She must however spare some thoughts for her compatriot, the rapidly improving Franca Ene Idoko who ran in the final of the IAAF World Indoor in Valencia.

The Ahmadu Bello University English language graduate came to the IAAF World Indoors as a joint leader, running a 7.09 African leader and personal best.

Her performance in Valencia, albeit she stumbled in the final and thus failed to get to the podium in her debut at the championship, convinced athletics watchers that a new star has been born.

Will Addis Ababa offer her the stage to ascend the throne? The answer will be provided tomorrow when the final is run.

While it looks a possible Nigeria 1 and 2 in the event, defending champion, Ghana’s Vida Anim who lost to Osayomi at the Africa Games last year will be spoiling for her pound of flesh.

She beat back-to-back winner, Nigeria’s Endurance Ojokolo to win the title in 2006. Also South Africa’s Constance Mkenku who won the silver medal behind Osayomi in Algiers will be hoping to go one step further than she did in Algiers.

Another event where Nigeria will not only have an unfettered access to the podium but actually clinch the gold will be in the women’s Shot Put where former Commonwealth champion, Vivian Chukwuemeka will be aiming for gold number three.

In the 100m hurdles, another USA-based athlete, Toyin Augustus will be gunning for a back-to-back title after winning the gold in Mauritius two years ago in her debut for Nigeria.

And she looks in fine form to accomplish the mission as she currently holds the best pre-championship best of 13.14 seconds.

In the men’s version, Salim Nurudeen will be praying he get’s the same kind of luck that fetched him the All Africa Games gold last year in Algiers.

The USA-based sprint-hurdler has been one of the most consistent faces in the event in the continent and can repeat his Algiers feat if his South African challengers go to sleep again, especially African record holder, Shawn Bownes.

It is however going to be a 50-50 affair in the women’s high jump where Nigeria’s Doreen Amata, the Lagos State University undergraduate will be hoping to get the better of her main challenger, South Africa’s Anika Smith who she beat to the All Africa Games gold last year on a count back after both tied on 1.89m which incidentally is Amata’s height.

The two athletes have added one centimeter to the 1.89m they cleared last year this year. The South African cleared it with the aid of the altitude in Pretoria late March while Amata cleared the height two weeks later in Lagos during the pre-championships trials.

In the women’s Hammer, Funke Adeoye is expected to make amends for spicing her system with a stimulant in Algiers at the All Africa Games where she had her silver medal withdrawn and her marks erased from the record books.

In Egypt’s Marwa Hussein Ahmed however she will have a hard nut to crack. But with Marwa nearing the end of her career, perhaps Addis Ababa will be the perfect stage for the Nigerian to become the continent’s best after trailing the Egyptian for over five years now.