Nigeria: Okoye Tipped for Glory

22 May 2011

LAWRENCE Okoye was described as an “awesome talent – he’ll be the best we’ve ever had” by his coach after gaining the Olympic B standard qualifying distance at the Surrey Championships.The discus thrower obliterated the previous championship best mark of 56.68 metres with a distance of 63.25 metres.

As if that wasn’t remarkable enough, it was his first senior competition with a 2kg discus instead of the 1.75kg with which he reached the World U20 Championship final last summer.Okoye, who left Whitgift School last year, has deferred a place at Cambridge for two years to concentrate on London 2012.His coach John Hillier declared: “He will be the best we’ve had [in Britain] and is very special. He does what he’s told and is a very bright boy, which makes a huge difference. He’s a

thinking athlete and doesn’t just blast it. That’s what he did [blast it] in his warm-up and smashed it into the cage. I told him to relax and do what he does in training.”He’s an awesome talent, mentally and physically. There are a lot of athletes who are just physical people and don’t know how to use it – he does.”He believes the Olympic/World Championship automatic qualifying A standard of 65 metres is within Okoye’s grasp.”There was a tail wind today and it’s only this far off,” he said, opening his arms to show the difference. “He was using an old discus and we’ve just bought him a new one.”The mammoth throw placed the 19-year-old 33rd in the world this year and second in the U23 all-time UK list, behind Welshman Brett Morse, 22, who threw 64.49 on April 28 in the United States.

Morse threw 56.87 at the age of 19, 59.92 a year later and last season managed a best of 63.35 at the Crystal Palace Diamond League meeting, a series that will surely now open up to the Waddon teen.Okoye, who won the Daily Mail Schools Rugby Cup with Whitgift last year, has his sights firmly set on London 2012 after taking two years out of his intended university education. The fact he fouled three throws by putting them into the cage at Kingsmeadow underlines both his potential and the fact that his technique needs much work. The only other throw to count went over 59 metres.He said: “I’ve been throwing very well in training, but I had a terrible warm-up and was a bit nervous. Luckily I just pulled it out of the bag. I’ve had a really good winter, my first in athletics.”

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