Chukwudi ‘Chidi’ Imoh will live long in the folklore of Nigerian athletics in particular and the world at large. There are many sides to his foray into the exciting world of sports. Arguably one of the most gifted athletes of his generation, Imoh hit the top of his athletics career shortly after abandoning the game of football midway into his secondary school education at Boy’s High School, Aba in the then old Imo State. He became a warlord on the track.
Imoh rose to become African 100m champion in 1984 and 1985 African Athletics Championship in Rabat, Morocco and Cairo, Egypt respectively and never looked back. In 1987, he won the All African Games 100m title in Nairobi, Kenya. He went on to pick a bronze medal in the 60m at the 1991 World Indoor Championships in Seville, Spain. Imoh competed at three different Olympics Games and the highpoint of his career was the silver medal he got at Barcelona ’92 Olympics in the 4 x 100m relay.
At the University of Missouri in Columbia, Imoh left his footprint on a good note. He was arguably the most successful athlete of the institution. Imoh owns the school’s 100-meter record and recorded back-to-back runner-up finishes in the sprint at the NCAA championships in 1985 and 1986. He held the 200m records on three occasions in the outdoor games with a time of 19.9 seconds as well as the 100m outdoor with a time of 10.00 seconds. He also set a record in the 55m indoor games with a time of 6.10 seconds. Speaking with GOWON AKPODONOR from his base in California, United States during the week, Imoh narrates the story of his life, including how his raw talents forced his parents to support his sporting career as a teenager. He also spoke on other issues, including the importance of education, which he described as paramount and number one priority.
DESTINY, they say, has a way of playing out in the life of a man. Perhaps, if Chidi Imoh stuck to the game of football in his school days, he, probably, would not have made a great impact and fortune, which he got from the field of athletics.
Born on August 27, 1965, Imoh rose to become one of the world’s greatest athletes setting records as if there were no tomorrow. He was always among the best in his days, leading Nigeria’s challenge against top sprinters from other parts of the world.
He was neck to neck with America’s Carl Lewis in the build-up to Seoul ‘88 Olympic Games in South Korea, where he was rated world number three by the IAAF.
Imoh began his sporting career as a footballer at Owo primary school in Ondo State before switching to the field of athletics midway in his post-elementary education at Boy’s High School, Aba.
Recalling the genesis of his athletics career in this interview with The Guardian, Imoh said, “I started as a soccer player up till my third year in the high school. One day, we were practising for the annual inter-house sports and I took a bet with my mates and my seniors that I would beat them in both the 100m and 200m races. They disagreed.
“During the inter-house sports proper, I surprised everybody by beating all the junior boys and the senior boys in the 100m and 200m dashes and I won all the trophies,” he said.
Before this time, Imoh’s parents never gave the young lad the support he needed to excel in sports. He said, “initially, my parents had their misgivings, but when they realised that I was naturally talented, they became readily supportive of my venture into athletics. When I was awarded a scholarship, they were quite elated.”
Imoh’s victory during the inter-house sports competition sowed the seed of his breakthrough in athletics, as he was nominated to represent the school in the district championships, where he proved his worth.
“I went on to represent the old Imo State in the national championships and won gold medals in all my events,” he stated.
The rising profile of the young schoolboy at the Boy’s High School in the commercial city of Aba soon spread around like the harmattan fire, thereby catching the attention of national and international coaches.
With a feeling of nostalgia, Imoh relishes his schoolboy experience. “School sports were a great deal of fun, and very engaging. It was an avenue wherein during competitions, athletes from different schools and out of state competitors hung out and there was a lot of camaraderies.”
Perhaps, one memorable competition Imoh will live to remember in his schoolboy career was the feat he recorded at Bendel ’81 National Sports Festival at the Ogbe Stadium in Benin City.
The young Imoh had made his way from the Boy’s High School into the old Imo State team for the festival. He was in the junior category, but his performance on the track before the games gave his coaches the hope of a medal.
Those were the golden era when the best of Nigerian athletes (home and abroad) were allowed to participate in the National Sports Festival. The Bendel ’81 fiesta was an open Game and so, the young Imoh had to battle with senior athletes in the sprint events. He did not disappoint.
“I won a silver medal in the senior category and everyone from my state was very excited because I belonged in the junior category. It became a major story in almost all the newspapers the following day that a rookie from the junior category beat senior athletes in Benin City. The performance catapulted me to the international circuit,” he stated.
From that moment, Imoh became a regular member in the Nigerian athletics team and he took part in various competitions, hauling medals at all fronts.
He made the annual Mobil Athletics Championship in Lagos a tough ground for other competitors, including Innocent Egbunike, Olopade Adeniken and the Ezinwa brothers, for many years.
Before Imoh’s dominance, Nigeria’s athletics had great stars like Victor Edet, Dayo Onanabusi and policeman, Ikpoto Eseme.
The baton exchanged from Eseme to Chidi Imoh and he went on rule the track for about a decade. He rose to become African champion in 1984 and in 1987, won the All African Games 100m title in Nairobi, Kenya, where he ran a personal best time of 9.92 seconds.
Imoh and five U.S.-based Nigerian athletes won gold medals at Edmonton ’83 World University Games in Canada. While Imoh struck gold in the 100m, Sunday Uti was champion in the 400m, just as Yusuf Ali ruled in the long jump. Triple jumper, Ajayi Agbebaku also won gold, while Innocent Egbunike defeated all contenders in the battle for gold in the 200m.
The third IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics took place in Seville, Spain in 1991 and Imoh was among the 531 athletes from 82 countries that participated. He ran 6.60 seconds to settle for a bronze medal in the 60m.
On August 15, 1986, Imoh set a new African 100m record of 10.00 seconds in the West Berlin Athletics Grand Prix. That was shortly after his hopes of winning a sprint medal in Edinburg ‘86 Commonwealth Games were dashed following the decision by Nigeria government to boycott the games.
Imoh went on to represent Nigeria at three Olympics Games, but his best moment was at Barcelona ’92 Olympics, where the country picked a silver medal in athletics for the first time.
Before then, the nation’s best in athletics in the Olympic Games was the bronze medal won in the 4x400m relay by the quartet of Sunday Uti, Moses Ugbusien, Rotimi Peters and Innocent Egbunike at Los Angeles ’84 Olympics.
In Barcelona ’92, Nigeria’s first Olympics silver medal came in the 4x100m relay quartet of Chidi Imoh, Olapade Adenikan, Kayode Oluyemi and Davidson Ezinwa.
The silver medal by Imoh and his ‘gang’ was followed by two other silver medals from David Izonritei and Richard Igbineghu in boxing and a bronze from the 4x100m relay quartet of Beatrice Utondu, Christy Opara-Thompson, Mary Onyali and Faith Idenhen.
Recalling his participation at Barcelona ’92 and other sporting events around the world, Imoh said, “my participation in sports helped affect my world view very positively. The world became less daunting for me. I travelled all over the world and met different people from diverse cultures. It gave me a lot of positive exposure.”
Before his performance at Barcelona ’92, Imoh had his most disappointing moment ever in sports at Seoul ’88 Olympics in South Korea.
In the build-up to Seoul ’88, Imoh was one of the best sprinters in the world. He was neck-to-neck with America’s Carl Lewis in the 100m and the calculation by many Nigerians then was that no matter what happened, Imoh would be among those to mount the medal podium. It went the other way. He picked up injury midway into the competition and could only manage to reach the quarter-final, where he crashed out in heat 2 with a time of 11.44 seconds.
“Seoul ‘88 was my worst moment in sports,” he told The Guardian. “I would have won a medal because I was really in top form and my target was to go for the medal. But I pulled a muscle somewhere along the line and I was devastated. I always took something from all my championships. I found them to be very rewarding experiences that helped me grow and advance as an athlete. But that didn’t happen in Seoul ’88 and it was very unfortunate,” he stated.
The Seoul ’88 Olympics was another disaster for Nigeria. With Imoh injured, the attention of Nigerians shifted to the duo of Isiaq Adeyanju and Olopade Adeniken in the 100m. They made it to the semifinal to increase the expectations of people back home. But in heat one of the semi-final, Adeniken placed sixth, despite running 10.33 seconds. Carl Lewis of U.S.A won it to progress to the final. In heat 2 of the semifinal, Adeyanju ran 10.60 seconds to finish seventh.
The Games itself ended in controversy after Canada’s Ben Johnson defeated the defending champion, Carl Lewis, with a world record time of 9.79 seconds in the final. Two days later, the IOC stripped Johnson his gold, when his post-race drug test indicated steroid use. His record time of 9.79 seconds was also erased and the gold awarded to Lewis, who ran 9.92 seconds in the final.
At the University of Missouri in Columbia, the sports records left behind by Imoh still stands till date. Imoh alongside two other Nigerians, Victor Edet and Isiaq Adeyanju, won six straight Big Eight titles in the 100m for the institution from 1983 to 1988.
Imoh, who holds the school’s 100m record (10.0 seconds), finished second at the NCAA Championships in 1985 and 1986. He also holds the records in the 200m outdoor with a time of 19.09 seconds and in the 55m indoor with a time of 6.10 seconds.
Looking back to his school sports days in Aba and his sojourn in sports, Imoh said, “being exposed to sports early actually made me very health conscious. I still work out very regularly and my health is intact, by the Grace of God.”
He blames Nigeria’s deficiency in producing young budding talents on ‘no investment’ in school sports unlike the case in the good old days of the nation’s sports.
“It appears those in charge do not seem to understand the relevance of school sports,” he said. “In shaping the whole child and instilling a life of discipline, we should be getting better and not retrogressing.
“Nigeria has a lot of talented youth who need the resources, training and encouragement to reach their peak. The dismal state of school sports in Nigeria is very disheartening to me. School sports in Nigeria needs a complete overhaul,” he added.
Imoh urges parents and athletes to take education very important, saying, “education is paramount and should be the number one priority to every child. After sports, you should have something to fall back on because sports lasts only for a season.”
