Nigeria’s reigning best athlete, Blessing Okagbare, who recently got married to his heartthrob, Igho Otegheri in Sapele, Delta State has tasked the federal government on ways the country’s athletes could win Olympic gold medals at the next edition of the Games at Rio 2016. She spoke with ORUKPE NELSON in this exclusive interview from her home in Sapele as she prepare for the journey of motherhood. Excerpts…

It was double celebration for you as you celebrated your birthday and had a presidential award same day in Abuja. How do you feel about this?

It depends on what you are saying, they are two different occasions entirely, one was to celebrate my life adding another year to my years and my whole life accomplishments, and the other was a reward for excellence representing my country. In all I feel so proud and glad that God is taking control of everything that concerns me. My birthday comes first it cannot be compared to anything as it is the gift of life from God.

You got married to your heartthrob a Nigerian soccer star, Igho Otegheri, on November 8 in Sapele, Delta State. What attracted you to your husband?

(Laugh) Well, he is God fearing that is very important to me. He is also a gentleman. I mean a true gentleman all in all.Whatever you can think of, so that was what attracted me to him. Of course I love him, when you meet people you actually get to understand them. When we met he was not a perfect man, but with time he was reborn to my taste and I found out some other good things about him I cannot say right now publicly.

Now that the wedding celebration is over, when do you plan to start a family, I mean having babies?

A family, hahaha, I am not planning about that now. At the moment I have goals that must be accomplished and other things to be achieved professionally, so starting a family immediately after my wedding is actually not in the schedule for me right now, no way. Honestly, we have already talked about it and my hubby knows what I do for a living. We have talked about it and he knows there are things I must get done in my career which are very important to me.

Having kids now is out of it, there are things in my career that must be accomplished before we start thinking of building a family. After my wedding the next agenda is to accomplish all the things I have set out to achieve and that is it, not having babies, this will surely come later.

In 2016, the Olympics will be coming and you are one of the best athletes in the world in your events, the 100 and 200metres sprints and the Long Jump yet you have not won an Olympic gold, what is your plan for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games?

Yeah, Rio 2016 is another Olympic year and winning gold in that edition of the Olympics is one of my major plans. I am looking forward to it and I really want to do well. Winning gold in Rio will be great for me and I have started working for it. Having a gold medal in my resume would be a great deal for me.

Ofcourse, it is going to be a great year for all top athletes and professionals in the world who would be expecting to win Olympic gold. For me my major focus for Rio 2016 is to win gold and become the best anyone can think of in my events. I know with God all these will be accomplished.

At the London 2012 Olympics, the expectation was so much for Blessing Okagbare to win a medal but at the end of the day, you didn’t win any medal, what happened?

If you don’t mind I don’t like to go back to the past, I have moved on in the last two years. Please pardon me I don’t want to talk about 2012 London Olympics, I think that is in the past now, let’s talk about the future which would be better for all of us.

It is often said that Nigeria’s world class athletes get themselves burnt out competing in races like the Golden League and Diamond League two weeks before the Olympics. And when it is time to win medals they crash out. What is your impression about this as you also fall in this class of the athletes we are talking about?

Some people have kept talking about this; they stay in one corner to criticize athletes who are doing their best to represent the country well and meritoriously. For me, I think these people are clueless and they know nothing, absolutely nothing about sports at the highest level. Let them keep talking about athletes who chose to compete two weeks to major championships like the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. The athletes surely know what they are doing. There are athletes who will choose to compete two weeks before a major event and they still do well. What we like doing best in Nigeria is just to sit down and criticize.

We must understand that there is time for everything. If you don’t know, competing in such competitions is geared towards doing well. It is only when you compete in an event whose standard is as high as that of the Golden League or the Diamond League that you get yourself fully prepared to get excellent results in the Olympics.

A lot of these people who criticize have done nothing to help build the athletes to world class competitors.

I am a full-time professional athlete and I am paid to compete and I must compete, so if the Nigerian sports authorities do not want me to go for a competition before the Olympic Games or the Commonwealth Games, they should pay me the full entitlements I get in those events. It is very simple. Then I will think about what you offered and we know where to go from here. Most of these critics do nothing to promote the athletes. It would interest you to know that these competitions set the athletes up for the major Games, and it does not mean that because you didn’t win you have failed. Not so. The athletes one way or the other must have met their expectations and not necessarily your own goal and that is very important.

It is not true that top athletes just go out there to run and run until they are burnt out, no it is not so.

What I want to tell Nigerians is that there is time for everything, and if that time comes you need not to be told, you will see it clearly. World class athletes go into different international championships with goals which vary from time to time, and they have reasons for doing these. There are some athletes whose goal in a particular championship is just to better their personal best; there are some who want to compete in the finals to improve international ratings and some are there to beat their countries’ national records. And once this is achieved individually, the athletes involved have met set goals. But people outside don’t know, all they want you to do in the major games is just to win the gold, but it doesn’t go like that.

Every competition I went for before the 2014 Commonwealth Games built me up for the big event at the Glasgow 2014. And when I got to the Commonwealth Games, I did so well because some of the things I used to do wrongly were corrected and Glasgow 2014 was a very easy competition for me because of the world class build-up in all these leagues across the world. People should stop criticizing the athletes; it does not work like that.

Blessing, you had an excellent outing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, what was the secret?  

God first, it was God all the way and I put in my best efforts. The Commonwealth Games was one of my major focuses for the year 2014. Again, before the Commonwealth Games, I was not the favourite to win the sprints, but my country and my coach went all the way to give me the best preparation and this paid off as Glasgow 2014 aside from being my best Games ever ended up being Nigeria’s best outing in the history of the Games.

Everything just fell into place for me and Glasgow 2014 became the easiest for me as I won the gold in both the 100metres and 200metres. I am grateful to God for this outing in Glasgow.

Are you comfortable with the influx of foreign athletes coming to compete for Nigeria after competing in the colours of America and England?

You might want to take that issue to the corridors of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, to get the appropriate answer, as it is an issue I really don’t want to get involved in. It is purely administrative. But if you ask me, I will say, I will rather prefer the AFN to groom and build Nigerian young athletes to compete in top international competitions instead of bringing some athletes who are left over’s in their various countries where their best was not good enough.

If I have the opportunity to buy athletes, I would buy the ones that would win gold medals for me at international competitions and not the ones that won’t do well. This issue should be taken to the secretariat of the Athletics Federation and not for me as I am not a fan of what they are doing with these foreign athletes.

Look at a young Nigerian athlete like Ese Brume who won gold medal in the Women’s Long Jump event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, for me she is better than the foreign athletes who didn’t win any gold in Glasgow. Ese has taken me as her role model wanting to become as great as Blessing Okagbare and she is actually achieving her set goals.She calls me her mentor and role model and she is doing well. She is doing well for herself and country, and I pray that the federation supports her to go places.

In the last five years, you have been the face of Nigerian sports, how do you feel about this?       

I feel great about this because God might have chosen another person for such glory but he decided to choose me. I am most humble and grateful to God for the support I have gotten so far from all my fans across the world and Nigerians as a whole.

When you are not competing on the tracks what do you do?

I stay indoors to watch television and try to get as much rest as I can. And during offs-eason I take time out to visit my friends but I do not party as that is not a part of me. I am more of the quiet type. The thing is that I try as much as possible to stay indoors, that is just me.

What kind of food do you enjoy most?

I love African dishes. My best food ever is white rice with plantain and palm oil soup served with fresh fish; I prefer cat fish, yes.

What are your expectations for next year?

Next year 2015 is a year for the IAAF World Championship and my aim is to win gold medals.My current gold medals winning streak came from the 2014 Commonwealth Games and I want to keep this trend running and jumping well to win gold medals at the World Championship.

For next year, I want to concentrate more on my main event and first love which is the Long Jump. I really want to jump well beyond the six metres mark. I want to jump as far as seven metres to set myself up for the big challenges at the Rio 2016 Olympics. I have been working on a lot of things that would stand me out in the World Championship to prepare me for 2016.

The next edition of the National Sports Festival has been thrown open for top Nigeria professionals from across the world to compete. Would Blessing Okagbare be competing in the Centenary Games in Calabar?   

No way, I am really not for that and again the timing is wrong. I have goals for next year and I am not sure the National Sports Festival is a part of it. I have my schedule and the Festival is not included. I am sorry I can’t do the National Sports Festival again, I can’t,I am supposed to be getting ready for the big season and not one Festival in Nigeria.

I don’t think it is good for people to hear that I am getting in shape to compete in local festival in Nigeria, I won’t do that, I am very sorry I am not going to be there for anything. Whoever is waiting for me to compete there should know that I will not do so. My orientation of the Sports Festival is for the discovery of new talents. I was discovered at the Festival in 2006 when I won bronze in the Long Jump and two year later at the Beijing Olympics, I won an Olympic bronze medal in the Long Jump, so why should anybody think that I will go back to the event where I was discovered in 2006.

What is your relationship with the AFN president, Chief Solomon Ogba?

He was there for me when I was a very young athlete coming up. He was one of those who believed in me and he actually helped me groom the talents in me. He believed in me when I was nothing, gave me all the motivations, backing, supports and encouragement to get to where I am today.He was responsible for making me become the Blessing Okagbare that I am today.

Chief Ogba helped me achieved my goals and that is why I am motivated to help some young athletes achieve their goals too. He guided me to become the success I am right now.