At National Trials for the Commonwealth Games in Abuja in 2017, he won all three events, in times of 11.50s, 23.10s and 51.24s respectively, but he was inexplicably left out of the team to Australia, where the Athlete who placed 2nd in the T46 100m at the Trials won the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal.
At that point, it was clear to me that Ifeanyi would be a serious medal contender for Nigeria at the World Para-Athletics Championships and the Paralympic Games, if only he could get the opportunity to compete annually on the World Para-Athletics Grand Prix circuit to qualify for those major global competitions. And what if we were able to provide him the same level of support as our other Athletes at Making of Champions (MoC) Track Club – how much faster could he go?
Every year I’ve known Ifeanyi, he had always talked about travelling abroad for one of the several annual World Para-Athletics Grand Prix Meets, but it never came to fruition as each time, the Para-Athletic Federation of Nigeria (PAFN) was unable to source the funding needed to make the trips. In fact, it wasn’t until he joined MoC this year that got on a plane for the very first time – we flew him to Enugu for the Para-Athletics Championships in April, where he once again swept all his events.
Thankfully, his story is one of delay and not denial. After winning all his events again at the Para-Athletics National Trials in Lagos in May, he was selected by the PAFN on a team of 4 Para-Athletes and 5 Officials for the World Para-Athletics Grand Prix in Tunisia at the end of June. After years of dashed hopes, Ifeanyi finally left the shores of Nigeria for the first time, as the PAFN was finally able to source the funds needed to attend a World Para-Athletics Grand Prix competition!
Ifeanyi won an unprecedented 3 Gold Medals in the T46/T47 100m, 200m & 400m in Tunis, in times of 11.04s, 22.20s and 49.56s respectively, automatically ranking him in the Top 5 in the world in all three events, and qualifying him for both the World Para-Athletics Championships and the Paralympic Games.
In the T46 category alone, he’s No. 2 in the world this year in the 200m (T46 is for above the elbow amputees, with a higher level of impairment than T47 Athletes – below the elbow)
He’s not far away from the T46/47 African Record in all 3 events (10.72s, 21.83s & 49.21s), and with the right support to compete regularly on the World Para-Athletics circuit from now until the Paralympics next year, who knows whether he could even attack the T46/47 World Records (10.50s, 21.10s, 47.69s) and win Paralympic Gold?
It won’t be easy, but it’s not possible to be the best that ever lived in anything without the necessary self-belief, and a village of people behind you giving you the support needed to dare challenge the best in the world!
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