- Name: Uchenna Emedolu
- Personal Bests: 60m (6.66s), 100m (9.97s), 200m (20.31s).
Uchenna Emedolu is an Olympic Bronze Medallist for Nigeria and the 6th fastest Nigerian ever in the 100m! While growing up, his first love was Football, and he captained his secondary school’s team. He also took part in Athletics and Volleyball sometimes.
However, after losing his father, he began to take Athletics more seriously and combined it with Football until the late 90s when he decided to face Track and Field squarely after hopes of pursuing a professional career in Football were dashed. As such, he never represented Nigeria at junior level.
However, Emedolu went on to represent the country in the 100m/200m at several international competitions at senior level, winning medals for Nigeria within the continent and at global championships. His major international achievements started in 2002 when he won the 9th IAAF World Cup in Athletics in 10.06s, becoming the first African to win the event.
He also raced to a Silver medal in the 100m at his first outing at the Commonwealth Games, which was Manchester 2002, and then finished 3rd at the 1st IAAF World Athletics Final in 2003. Within the continent, he was a Silver medalist in the 100m at the 2003 All-Africa Games in Abuja, before going on to win the GOLD medal in the 200m, finishing ahead of Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks and Aziz Zakari of Ghana.
He clocked a Personal Best (PB) of 9.97s to win Silver in the 100m at the 2003 All-Africa Games, making him the sixth fastest Nigerian in history! A year later at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Emedolu was part of the 4x100m relay quartet (Olusoji Fasuba, Aaron Egbele and Deji Aliu) that won a Bronze medal.
He thereafter claimed a Silver medal in the 100m at the 2006 African Championships in Mauritius, before storming to GOLD in the 200m. He remains the last Nigerian male sprinter to have won GOLD in the event at the African Championships.
Emedolu has trained several athletes who have made the Nigerian team to international competitions, and he teamed up with Making of Champions (MoC) in 2015 in the quest to raise future Champions for Nigeria. He was one of the Olympic medalist judges on MoC’s Reality TV show Top Sprinter Genesis, and became MoC Track Club’s Head Coach in Port Harcourt in March 2017. He currently trains MoC athletes studying at the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State.
- Head Coach of MoC Track Club in Port Harcourt
- 200m GOLD Medalist at the 2006 African Championships, Mauritius
- 100m Silver Medalist at the 2006 African Championships, Mauritius
- 4x100m Bronze medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games, Athens.
- 200m GOLD Medallist at the 2003 All-Africa Games, Abuja.
- 100m Silver Medallist at the 2003 All-Africa Games, Abuja.
- 100m GOLD Medallist at the 2002 IAAF World Cup, Madrid.
- 100m Silver Medalist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester.
- 100m Silver Medalist at the 2002 African Championships, Tunisia.
- 4x100m GOLD Medalist at the 2002 African Championships, Tunisia.
