OGUN PICKS OGUNKOYA FORB LOC COMMITTEE

Falilat Ogunkoya, Nigerian former  track and field  athlete who holds the distinction of becoming the first Nigerian to win an individual track and field medal at the Olympic games, has been included in a 16-man Local Organizing Committee ahead of the 2024 National Sports Festival (NSF) to be held in Ogun State, by the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun.

Ogunkoya, born 5 December 1968 in Ode Remo,  Ogun State,  Nigeria has won a number of national championships, including a  gold medal in 1996 in the 400 metres, gold in the 200 metres  and 400 m in 1998, and gold again in 1999 and 2001 in the 400 m. At the 1987  All Africa Games  in  Nairobi  she won the  silver medal in the 200 m.

In 1995 at the All Africa Games in  Harare  she won the silver in the 400 m, and at the 1999 Games in  Johannesburg  she won a gold medal in the 400 m.

At the  1996 Summer Olympics  Ogunkoya won a  bronze medal  in the 400 m, behind  Marie-José Pérec  of  France  and  Cathy Freeman  of  Australia, in a personal best and  African record  of 49.10, which is currently the twelfth fastest of all time. It marked the first time a Nigerian athlete won a medal in an individual track and field event.