Tobias Igwe is arguably Nigeria’s finest indigenous athletics coach. He has proved over time that his discoveries were no fluke.

He has produced World athletes who shot themselves into reckoning and made Nigeria’s flag flutter among the best. Toblow, as this unassuming coach is fondly called, discovered Mary Onyali, Uchenna Emedolu, the Ezinwa brothers, Osmond and Desmond. Great names that took the athletics world  by storm.

Though this generation of athletes has run out of gas, Toblow is still firing from all cylinders discovering new ones to wear the spike shoes. The job of discovering the athletes has been difficult but the passion he has for the tracks is still burning.

Recently, Toblow came up with two young athletes he declared would shock the athletics world  – Nkiruka Uwakwe and Chukwuka. And true to his prediction, his wards, within two years of their discovery, won laurels at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Nkiru snatched a gold medal among other youths from the world  and so also did Chukwuka.

The Abia Athletics Coach has been waiting to showcase his latest discoveries at the on-going sports festival before his dreams were punctured.

“The boy and the girl are as good as gold. I know the saying that one should not count his chicken before they are hatched. But these ones are different. They are young and good and will deliver any day.”. While Toblow and his Abia contingent counted their gold medals before the race, a clash of event struck to deny them even sliver and bronze.

“They are currently representing Nigeria at an international event”, Igwe mourned scratching his head. “These people have punctured my dream. I wanted to parade them and decorate them with gold and show them off to Nigerians before they become world beaters. What can I do? They are on national service”

Any hope for Team Abia? “My brother, I said they have punctured my dream and you are asking if there is hope. Hmm, lets wait and see”.