Nike sends Nigerian Olympiad to US for training
US sportswear manufacturer Nike has taken over the preparation of the Beijing Olympics long jump bronze medallist, Nigerian Blessing Okagbare for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The brand has completed the policy of having many of the athletes they have under contract, including Ms Okagbare, US-born Walter Dix and Trinidad's Richard Thompson move to Los Angeles to train as a group with John Smith.
Mr Smith's most notable current pupil is world 100m champion, Carmeliter
Jeter, the second fastest woman ever over 100m behind 1988 Olympic
champion, the late Florence Griffith-Joyner (Flo Jo).
Ms Okagbare, was a 100m finalist at the last
IAAF World Championships in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea. She trained for four years with University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP) assistant coach, Leone Settle.
She told the El Paso Times late in 2011 of her reluctance to Mr Smith. "A coach has to believe in you to coach you. I've been in El Paso for four years and I have been successful. If I have to leave this city I've loved for four years, I want to make sure I can do even better,'' she was quoted as saying.
