All Quotes

"I have really worked hard to get where I am at now, but it feels normal"

"I just want to focus on what I have to do and don't get distracted by anything right now"

"Yesterday as today, the Catholic Church is called to respond with its effective and consoling presence among the martyred population, without ever ceasing to launch appeals for peace and reconciliation of the parties in conflict: The violence ravaging northern Mozambique, in the province of Cabo Delgado, has already made its martyrs among the Catholic community. The example of the martyrs of Chapotera, like that of the catechist martyrs of Guiúa and many others, is of great importance today. They are men and women who chose a life of witness and proclamation of the Gospel of peace and love. Their example remains and multiplies."

"I think I've had a lot of speed in my legs lately. My coach has been implementing over-speeding again in training. I haven't done it for about four years. I need to control the speed between hurdles and not run into them then I should be fine"

"3,04 away, I think if I run a clean race I have a good start, I should get it. The next race would be in Europe. I'm not sure when but I think I might race on the 24th. Then I'm on the waiting list for Rabat Diamond League"

"I think it's one of my best seasons at the National Champs. I didn't run 13.3 I think for the past four years. At the National Champs, I did it in the heat and the final, both very messy races. Where the last time I did 13.3 was in clean races"

"This is a great competition because it’s the best athletes in the world going up against each other. I’m looking forward to competing against the athletes from the seven countries and to going out there and giving my all"

"My European performances thus far haven’t been great but I’m still happy with the outcome of my races. I’m working on a few technical things and hopefully, it can work out and my times will start dropping. It was my first Commonwealth Games and I was satisfied with my results there. In January I tore my hamstring so my build-up to the Commonwealth Games wasn’t that smooth"

"All the hard work at training sessions over the years has finally paid off. I never gave up and knew one day I would reach my dream of competing on the international stage"

"I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked, but I have been a bit inconsistent, so the main goal is to be more consistent, and that experience will help me going forward. But most important is that I really enjoyed the experience of going up against the best in the world in Rio, and look forward to doing it again"

"My coach and I worked hard to get where I am now. We worked on speed for a few years, and then focused on technique, but there is still room for improvement"

"Training is a lot of hard work, but I have the hunger to improve every year, even if it’s just 0.01 seconds. It’s still an improvement, and I trust my coach and his guidance to get me there"

"To be honest, it didn’t come as a surprise at all. I could feel it in the warm-up, and I had been running times like that in training, so I just had to perform on the day. My coach had told me I was going to be the one to break the record, and in training you could see I was a lot stronger than last year, so we knew it would come this year"

"My long-term goal is to work towards podium finishes and medals at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympics. That would be amazing, and it won’t come easy, but with hard work, belief and trust, I think it can happen"

"I can always look back at my races, see what I did wrong, and work on how to perfect it, then get better. I just want to make it into the final of a major competition and whatever happens, happens, because it is so unpredictable in a final, and anything can happen in a technical race like the 110m hurdles"

"Not surprisingly, the gender of the actors seems to be one factor that determines whether a particular change is regarded as an example of ‘Westernization that is disrespectful of our traditions."

"I’m convinced that, powered by hope and fueled by courage and anger, we have the power to transform our collective future."

"I don’t believe in empire, and I actively resist colonialism and its toxic and enduring legacy."

"A gender-equal society would be one where the word 'gender' does not exist: where everyone can be themselves."

"My inspiration came mostly during the national schools championship itself as when you see other athletes celebrating their wins, you also want to bask in that feeling. So I trained harder to get the wins. International competitions have also been a huge motivator for me as I have always wanted to get to the highest level"

"Well, obviously there were those that looked at me like I did not belong, but most of them were okay as all over the world there are young athletes who have achieved extraordinary things, so I managed to blend in easily"

"Uhm… Judo. Judo has always been the first sport that truly lifted and helped me get to where I am."

"It was very tough. I spent three years at SIT and during my first year I struggled a lot as there were many international tournaments, so in my second year I put my feet down and decided not to travel to every tournament. Then when I did travel I took my school notes with me. I actually owe a lot to my classmates at that time as they helped me a lot, by sending me notes and assignments when I was away"

"It doubles the training as for sprint you are only running and learning the techniques, but for hurdles you have to jump as well and also learn proper technique to time your jumps. So it is more demanding"

"Yes. I mean, I set this record at a young age, so now I have to always live up to it and it is quite a burden for me if I can’t get near this record again, so I will keep giving my best to continue to lower it"

"I was really happy as it was not something I had expected to achieve, but it is something that showed all my hard work was worth it"

"I will say that it is very difficult to succeed nowadays, so I want to urge all the youths to work hard and never give up. You should always bet on yourself to succeed and in the end you will"

"I'm planning on coming back stronger, win conference, go to regionals, go to nationals, go all the way"

"Visibility equals credibility."

"It was great. This one was a little bit different. I didn’t have two great rounds, and had to rely on my experience to get me through the final"

"But I knew what I had to do, I knew what I was missing. With that being said, a big shout-out to the sports staff. Everybody was telling me, ’You’ve done this a million times before, you’ve just got to do it again"

"It’s a world championships, you’ll always have nerves for the world championships wherever you’re at"

"I think I can put grace in it and hang up the 60m hurdles and try out a new event next year"

"To win three indoors and three outdoors, I think I’m the first person in history to ever do that. That’s an amazing stat"

"But I’m young, I’ve got a lot of races under my belt, so I’ll take this with a grain of salt and I keep moving forward"

"This was not the outcome that I wanted but it enables me to say I’m an Olympic medalist"

"I put myself in these high-pressure situations. I just wanted to just make sure that when the gun went off, I took care of my lane, my space. So I put enough of a gap to where I kind of had it squared away. I just had to make sure I didn't knock down any hurdles"

"It's a lot of mental work"

"You need a lot of mental fortitude. I say, ‘Alright, if I don't do this, let's do some push-ups.' It's like a punishment. You put yourself through those situations so that you know exactly what you need to do to win"

"And you know, my coach calls me crazy sometimes because I kept saying, ‘Again, again, again, again.’ I just want to make sure that practice makes permanent. And as I always say, ‘Permanent makes paper"

"I’ve accomplished all my lifetime goals"

"I turned pro in 2019, so in almost five years I accomplished everything that I wanted to do in track and field. So this is the tough part, I have to continue to find ways to get motivated"

"I didn’t get a medal but at the same time, it’s still a great year for me, that means I still have a lot of potential to actually compete with these guys so it’s pretty amazing to come out here to compete"

"I’m Nigerian so there is nothing that actually surprises me anymore…coming out here doing my best, running a new PR [Personal Record] that’s something big for me"

"It’s a fair call. He put in a lot of work to get that medal, and if they are trying to rip that away, I don’t think that’s fair. He didn’t deliberately knock over the hurdle — that could happen to anyone"

"Everyone came out here to put in a lot of work, and that man deserves it. I’m also extremely proud of myself for being able to make it to the world finals"

"I’m always confident, but at the same time, I do not underrate my fellow competitors, because anyone could virtually run fast at any time"

"I just go in there, and I try to execute what I’ve learnt. I was fully ready for this race. I’m going to talk to my coach, and we’ll make the right adjustments"

"I’m also happy with the presence of my partner with me in Tokyo. She’s been supporting me all through the whole year. She was at the NCAA with me and in Nigeria"

"It’s really amazing to have her around, and after my race, it’s good to see someone I know looking at me and picking my odds"