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Former queen of the track, Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, can now heave a sigh of relief after seeing a worthy successor in the United States of American scholar and sprint star, Adedamola Osayomi, the new sprint Amazon.

Osayomi stunned Nigerians recently with her superlative showing in the Nigeria’s Olympic trials in Abuja. And every Nigerian who witnessed the sprinter trodden the tracks like stallion, agreed that a new star is born in the Ekiti State-born Damilola. And the happiest person among the hordes of sports enthusiasts at the Abuja National Stadium was Onyali, who said that Nigeria would be a strong contender for the female sprint gold in Beijing Olympics.

Onyali had thought that it would take ages to get a heir apparent after her retirement a couple of years ago, but she was damn wrong as one has been emerged from the blues like a thunderbolt.
You can call it the modern day reminiscence of the story of Prophet Elijah and his ward, Elisha, who waited patiently to get the mantle of authority from his master, Elijah. Osayomi wasted no time to grab the baton of grace from Onyali after she had made up her mind to get set for the sprint challenges.
Speaking on the exploits of her ward, Onyali said she was overwhelmed with joy to have produced somebody like her in the sprint events.

"When my set left, I knew that there would be a big vacuum in the Nigerian athletics, but it wasn’t as I thought. In less than two years after I retired from sprint, I now have somebody we can rely on in any international athletics event. I was scared at first, but now, I’m so happy that the development happened drastically due to my fast thinking and the way of doing things. I didn’t waste too much time before I discovered that there’re great potentials in Osayomi," Onyali said.

She said that it was not easy for her in the beginning when she spotted Osayomi, but she encouraged herself and took the star athlete from Nigeria to the United States of America for further training.
"Nobody advised me on what to do before I took her to America to study, and today, she is better of. At this year’s Mobil Championship, she was the greatest revelation and Nigerians were happy that there’s somebody to look up to in the Nigerian camp when the Beijing Olympic Games finally kicks off in China in August.

"As a former athlete, Osayomi will enjoy every support she deserves from me. She would be well guided on how to manage herself properly at the top."
According to Onyali, Osayomi first surfaced in Nigerian colours in big athletics arena when she finished seventh in the 2004 Olympic Games’ 4x100 metres race in Athens, Greece. She was also a star attraction the following year at the Helsinki World Championship in Finland. But her best was not good enough to place Nigeria on good standing as she also finished in the seventh position.

The same year, at Osaka, Japan, she was a shadow of herself in the 100 metres race, but two years after, precisely, in 2007, at the last All Africa Games in Algeria, she suddenly breezed out from obscurity to steal the show in the sprint events.
By living up to the pre-games prediction, Osayomi won the 100 and 200 metres events before helping Nigeria to come second in the 4x100 metres race. From there, she travelled to Spain to win the World Indoor Championship’s 100 metres race. In 2008, at the Addis Ababa Africa Athletics Championship, she won the gold medal in the 100 metres, came third in the 200 metres and finished first with other three Nigerians in the 4x100 metres.

Onyali was happy that Osayomi has been using all those races to further prepare herself for more challenges, and had really improved tremendously.
In Abuja, she cleared the stakes to win Mobil’s N1million jackpot as the most outstanding athlete at the trials. With her, Onyali, however, predicted good outing for Nigeria's athletics team to the Olympic Games.

Onyali-Omagbemi, the first Nigerian to win an individual sprint medal in the Olympics with her 200 meters bronze at the Atlanta '96, said the country's athletes would be keen to prove a point in Beijing.
"I'm sure our athletes will spring surprises at the Olympics. Just watch out for them. I have heard suggestions that Nigeria should pull out of the Games because our medal prospects are bleak, but I believe that's totally wrong," she said.

"We have athletes who are good enough to win medals and this suggestion will only serve to spur them on. Athletes don't like it when people don't believe in them and that's when you see them at their best.
"I strongly believe that we will win at least three medals at the Olympics. I don't care about the colour, all I know is that we can win three medals."

The former fastest woman in Africa, who also won a 4x100m relay bronze at the Barcelona '92 Olympics, said she was impressed with the intensity of the competition for places in the Nigerian team.
"It is a very good development. It is good to see that new athletes are pushing the top ones."