11th May, 2012
If there is one thing that America-based Nigeria’s female athlete, Gloria Asumnu craves, it is her dream to win a medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, which would be her debut.
Asumnu twitted recently saying: “It’ll be my first Olympic Games and I want it to be memorable, simply because it’s my first and the work that I’ve put in this year alone.
“It’s going to be exciting for myself and my family and Nigeria. For all the athletes who are competing we just want to make sure we give our best for our dear nation.”
At the moment, Asumnu is taking her training seriously with the aim of returning to Nigeria with a medal.
According to her: “I’m staying healthy and keeping my body together, so I can peak at the right time to give my best performance for my country”.
She also twitted that she is still at crossroads whether to include the 200m on her schedule but stated: “For now my main focus is the 100m. My coach obviously wants me to run the 200m because he feels that I can run a good time. We’ll assess this in training. Thank goodness, I’m training for both events after the Nigerian Championships. I’ll run both and we’ll make the decision going forward. The 100m is the primary focus, and with the 200m, if we decide to do it then I’ll give 110 percent.”
Asunmu will be going to the Olympics as her second major championships after the All Africa Games held last year in Maputo. She believes that her compatriots can post a five star performance by winning medals for the country.
“During my first All-Africa Games, I wasn’t prepared to compete there so I just went out with barely any training and just competed. I’d had the whole issue with the IAAF and switching countries and getting clearance really late. So I thought my season was actually done ahead of time.”
The preparation for the Olympics has been smooth with a successful Indoor season behind her too. “Now because I know I’ve got clearance and I’m fine we just take things slowly and do things day-by-day. We assess how my body feels and if it is a good day. You don’t run too many races and get tired out.”
“With switching coaches and going back to my first coach Garfield Ellenwood it’s preparation for outdoors for me. Its working on my block start, different things like drive phase transition, getting the first 60 down in order to move forward. We ran a few races here and there. It helps put together the 100m.”
The plan for the coming season looks like being a measured lead up to the Olympics. Asumnu said: “I currently have a schedule set up with three to four races before the Nigerian trials and then assess whether I need any races in-between. Maybe a few, but not too many.”