By Ben Efe

Nigerian athletics have never been short of talents. The frustration here is that only a few squeeze through the bottle-neck and Sarah Malagu is one athlete who not only wants to beat the odds, she has chosen a discipline which is unheralded in the country and she is seriously working to making a name in it.

On this particular day at the National Stadium in Lagos, where she trains with other athletes, Malagu was grimacing in pain as she went through her training routine with her coach. There was minor bleeding from a bruise on her knee as she moved her waist on the concrete floor from side to side. The coach explained that she needed the flexibility, if she had to do well in her event.

But Malagu beamed with a smile when she was asked after training why she took up the walk race, an event the Athletics Federation of Nigeria had always paid little attention to, due to the fact that they have no athletes with world standard performances. However, after winning bronze at the African Youth Athletics Championships in Warri, Delta State and also followed up with another bronze at the African Junior Championships in Mauritius, Malagu, it seems, has won new converts to the walk race at the AFN. This include technical director, Navy Commodore Omatseye Nesiama

*Malagu

“Everyone wants to do the sprints but I do not want to join the bandwagon,” said Malagu who only took to athletics three years ago.

“I love taking up challenges and based on my performances so far, I know that I will go far,” said the athlete who will turn 18 next year.

She had her first ever international experience at the AYAC in Warri, Delta State. She was denied the the gold and silver by Ethiopia’s Demoze Tege Gebretsadeke and Abate Wale respectively in the 5km Walk. And at the African Junior, there was a remarkable improvement in her timing even as she settled for another bronze this time she was pushed to the third position by Benti Asakale of Ethiopia and South African Anel Opsthuizen. Malagu finished at 26:16.53 seconds compared to the 30:20.88 she did in Warri.

Buoyed by that outing Malagu is dreaming big. She is looking forward to making the 2014 Commonwealth Games, this is with the hope of making history like Fatima Yusuf, who won a gold at the 1990 Auckland Games at 17 years of age. “By God’s grace, I want to be in the Commonwealth Games and have a better performance. I am not scared of the other established athletes I will compete with. “Everybody have their training plan and it depends on how you train. No athlete is better than the other, it is the training that makes the difference and I am getting the best of training. “I have the confidence that if I train well, I will be in the team and will do well at the Games. I am getting the best of training

Apart from the Commonwealth Games, Malagu is looking forward to making her Olympics debut at the 2016 Games in Rio. Tall dreams that might be, the petite athlete has her father as a motivation. Moses Malagu represented Nigeria at the Barcelona Olympic Games in the boxing event. And he has been doing a lot of talking to his daughter. My dad was very proud of me when I came back from Mauritius with a bronze. He wasn’t surprised at it because he always believed that I can do better. He would always tell me to have a lion heart when I am competing and I am motivated to be at the Olympics just like him.