Nigerian female rower, Esther Toko is taking stock of her adventure so far, after crashing out in fifth position at the ongoing Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although she admitted her target was to end up on the podium with one medal or the other, the history-making rower took consolation in the fact that she dared where many fear to turn up.
Such it was that the 21-year-old Toko ranks among a class of ‘unusual’ competitors from Nigeria at the Olympics, as her event is considered unheard of in that part of the world.
Toko who was on lane five of the six-woman heat one of the event’s opening round at Sea Forest Waterway could only finish fifth in eight minutes 58.49 seconds; which was 1:08.78 behind fourth-placed Alejandra Alonso of Paraguay (8:11.88) and 2:28.56 ahead of Esraa Khogali of Sudan (10:18.27).
Heading into the Games, the secretary general of Nigeria Rowing Canoeing Sailing Federation, Bunmi Oluode had tipped Toko to create a huge impression in Tokyo, but the trailblazing lady finished two spots outside the medals’ zone.
History, though, was made after Toko placed fifth in her heat in the women’s single sculls in the rowing event on Friday, as the damsel, who was competing in her first ever Olympics, finished with a time of 8:58.49.
She will now hope for a better finish when she competes in the repechage for a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo Bay, where all three Nigerian rowers could only qualify for the classification series after failing to pick tickets to the quarter-finals from their heat.
Incidentally, Toko’s story comes five years after that of Chierika Ukogu, a 23-year-old based in Philadelphia, USA, who became the first rower to represent Nigeria in the Olympics, when she put off her course in medical school to feature at Rio 2016.
She even self-fund herself in order to represent Nigeria in the single scull event, just few months after Nigeria Rowing, Canoe & Sailing Federation was established, with a view of getting spots at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
No one thought they would get any competitor at Rio 2016 but Okogu changed the tale when she e-mailed Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) with a request to representing the country and become the nation’s first rower at the global multi-sports showpiece.
Ukogu told philly.com: “Just emailing them and telling them, ‘Hey, I want to do this,’ meant nothing. They ignored me because I didn’t have a plan.”
