By ONOCHIE ANIBEZE in USA
When an athlete is coasting to the finish line in fine technique  but doesn’t place among the winners, a coach may understand the problem. The coach may have to work on the athlete’s endurance or speed or both.

But when an athlete is exerting so much energy, struggling (and tearing belle as they say in local parlance) and even his face showing that he has given his all and still places last, any good coach would know that the athlete has nothing more to offer.

The latter appears how best to capture the male athletes Nigeria presented at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia at the weekend.

For six weeks they have been training in At lanta but at the Penn Relays they showed no Olympic stuff in them.  The men’s 4x100m team returned 39.98, a time slower than the sub 39 secs they returned at the Maputo Games. So what have they gained from the training in Atlanta?

“It is cold here and the track was also a problem as we were not used to it,” one of the athletes that ran the 4x400m relay offered. They placed last. His reason would not sink in this time of the Olympics. But the athletes have not been treated well by the National Sports Commission that didn’t pay them any allowance for the six weeks they have been here training. They were only informed Monday morning that the AFN would pay them one month training grant this week.

Solomon Ogba, the President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria was not taken aback by the performance of the Nigerian athletes here.

“We have a plan B and by the time we will get to the Olympics there would have been changes in the team. It is not fair to lose hope in the team,” Ogba said.

He is banking on some athletes who will eventually join the team. Among them are new athletes.

Idara Otu, the girl that ran the first leg in the 4x100m, for example, was running for Nigeria for the first time. She had not even been to Nigeria. She has run a 52 secs in the 400m this year. They were, however not impressive in their 5th place finishing.

“I think that we will do better with time,” Gabriel Okon offered minutes after the race.

“By the time Noah Akwu and Abiola join our team they will be better,” he said.

While the female relay teams have qualified for the Olympics, the men are yet to qualify.

Ogba said that after races in the Warri Grand Prix, the African Championship in Benin Republic and one or two more events Nigeria will participate in the men’s relay teams would hopefully qualify. Mary Onyali thinks so too. She said that it would be wrong to draw conclusions after the Penn Relays.

Nigeria’s 4x100m female team, as usual, saved Nigeria’s face by placing third with a time of 43.92. Should one celebrate that as the Olympics approach? Time will tell.