Osayomi Falls from Race.

News of Damola’s injury was first disclosed by her American coach John Burks on Sunday August 17, minutes before Damola’s fallout from then race for the finals. At 11.44sec Damola’s poor performance was incongruent with her previous victories and an indication that she was suffering a severe injury. “This is my worst race this year” she says the morning after the match. “I feel horrible. I ran 11.13 for the heat and even during my private training I do 11.02, 11.00 and sometimes even 10 plus,” says a devastated Damola. Burks has trained Damola for over two years but only arrived in Beijing on August 14th. Without accreditation John Burks could not gain access to the Olympic games village where Damola Osayomi was camped.


However coach Harrison Momoh and Innocent Egbunike were at hand to train Damola and other members of the Nigerian athletic team. Once Burks gained access to Damola, they resumed their usual training and he was confident that she would at least make the finals. Minutes before her last 100m race, Burks said, “I know she can make this final. I was hoping she would get a medal but right now the complication in her leg is giving me concerns. If I could have come here from day one, I would have stretched her and done the things we do before a race. But it’s not that bad. I know her better than anyone else because I train her in America and I am sure she will be fine.” Damola paints a clearer picture of the injury: “The pain is not in my leg, it is in my groin. I started feeling it during the second race yesterday (August 16) and the doctors have been treating me.” What triggered the pain remains a mystery but Damola suspects two things: “It could be the way I push out of the block for the race because maybe sometimes I push out too powerfully” and “also when I came back from Nigeria in July for the pre Olympic trials, I was totally out of shape. I gained 10pounds whilst in Nigeria and I had to work extra hard to lose the weight before the Olympics. I normally weigh 149pounds but when I came back to the U.S from Nigeria I was weighing 160pounds. I worked out intensively and came down to 153pounds when I was coming to the Olympics.” Damola’s fallout came as unexpected as her injury and her coach says “When she came she was 110% ready to run. I was looking at her doing 11.02. I wanted her to 11.01 or 10.98. This was what I expected from based on what I had done with her before she came. She said 11.13 felt easy. I’ve been doing these for 16years and I have eight gold medal athletes under my belt. She has the talent and the strength and right now Damola is even more talented than many of the people I have trained.

The only thing that she doesn’t have that I can’t give her is the experience she needs to run these races. Within a year and a year and a half she will be number one or within the top five sprinters in the world” says Burk. Osayomi was running against other sprinters who were dashing across the 100m track in less then 11seconds. With a difference of .31 seconds, Damola went from leading the race at the heat to being the last at the race for the finals, which Kerron Stewart from Jamaica won in 11.05sec.


Damola isn’t the only athlete to suffer from Achilles heels at the Beijing Olympic games. Liu Xiang, China’s 110m-hurdler and most celebrated athlete also pulled out of his race today due to an injury.

Win or lose at the 100m, Damola’s spirits are up and she is putting her better foot forward at the women’s relay.