Will Marriage Slow Okagbare Down?

                            Written by Samuel Ekun;




Coaches Express Mixed Feelings
Sports coaches in Nigeria have expressed mixed feelings on Blessing Okagbare’s ability or otherwise to maintain her winning streak on the national, continental and global tracks, after getting married to Igho Otegheri on November 8.
Some of the coaches said Blessing should be encouraged to do better while others felt married life would affect her performance.
A Basketball Coach, Thomas Wallace, said the most important thing was for the athlete to remain focused and not to be bothered about her marital status.
“The most important thing for her is to remain focused and to have the right coach who can develop programmes and divide it into different phases for her.
“It is a team effort, not just for the athlete, but for the coach, for her husband and for the family to be able to work together for a common goal.
“ It is not something difficult, but it must be a team effort; it will take a lot of efforts on her side now that she is married and possibly going to have a child,’’ Wallace said.
He, however, said that there should be developmental programmes to nurture upcoming athletes, instead of depending on the successful ones alone.
A Handball Coach, David Emmanuel, said that although Nigeria was not a conducive environment for married athletes to perform better than they had been doing, he was convinced that Okagbare would perform better.
“Based on my experience, I believe she can do it and I believe she will even perform better now.
“She will still be able to perform if we handle things the way they are done across the world.
“But due to the nature of the society we are in this country, we have the problem of whenever a lady is married, she has become somebody’s property, nobody wants to help her or look at her direction.
“I was at the Handball African Cup of Nations sometime in January and the lady that was the Most Valuable Player at the tournament was nursing a baby at that time.
 “But we have a problem here in Nigeria that we neglect married women,’’ Emmanuel said.
A Football Coach, Ifeanyi Sammy, said that married life would affect Okagbare psychologically and emotionally.
“Wh