Teenage sensation Peace Lekwot was the star of the Nigeria School Sports Federation World School Athletics Trial after she grabbed two gold medals on the same day.
The 15-year-old Faith Academy, Kaduna pupil defied the odds to emerge champion in the girls’ long and high jump events, ahead of other athletes from 15 states that featured in the two-day championships at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.
Lekwot not only emerged as the winner twice, she also erased her personal best (PB) in the events to the admiration of coach Felix Osiebe.
In the long jump event, she recorded 5.30m to erase her PB of 5.26m, while in the high jump, she set a new PB of 1.50m to wipe out her former PB (1.45m).
The excited teenager described her feat as a reward for hard work.
“When we were coming to Lagos, we missed her flight to Lagos on Monday because of vehicular traffic between Kaduna and Abuja. So, we had to reschedule our flight to midnight and we arrived at Lagos at 2am and had to sleep at the Lagos airport. We would have decided to forfeit the trip but we were determined to make it to Lagos,” she said.
“Despite the challenges, my coach encouraged me to give my best and when I saw the line-up of athletes across the country, I summoned courage to give my best, which helped me in setting new PBs in the two events. Athletics has been part of me since I was in primary school, and it was after watching Ese Brume doing the country proud at the international stage that further ignited my passion for the sport. So, my target is to become the best in Nigeria and in the world by exceeding the feat set by Brume,” she said.
Also, Lekwot’s schoolmate, Daniel Emenike claimed the gold medal in the boys’ javelin event.
Sixteen-year-old Lukmon Adebayo of Lagos also lit up the event, running 22.84secs to claim the 200m boys title.
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