Innocent Egbunike, 400m sprinter & Coach [PODCAST]

First, I want to thank Ian Dube and Bill Goss from USATF-GA (Georgia) for this podcast. Visit their website at www.usatfga.org and their Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/USATFGA.

Last month they had Kenta’ Bell on the Teleseminar and I really enjoyed the 20 minute talk followed by a Q&A session format with all the callers. (at least, the ones who dared to speak up)

When I was running open 400s back in the mid-late 1980’s, USA had all the stars… they still do but the rest of the world is catching up… names like Innocent Egbunike of Nigeria, and Gabriel Tiacoh of the Ivory Coast (who passed away in 1992 from viral meningitis).

Athletes becoming Coaches

As an athlete, Innocent Egbunike placed 6th and 5th in the 400 meters at the 1984 & 1988 Olympics respectively.

He won a bronze in the 4x400m relay 1984.

He also won a silver (400m) at the 1987 World Championships in Rome.

His PR’s are an impressive 10.15 / 20.42 / 44.17 for the 100 /200 /400 meters. Remember, this was almost 30 years ago in the days of softer tracks, and 4 rounds with no rest days!

As a coach, Innocent was the Coach of the Nigerian track and field team at the 1996, 2000, and 2008* Olympics (*Head Coach in 2008).

He was also the coach of Angelo Taylor (gold medalist in the 400m hurdles) and Chris Brown (4th at the 400m) at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Here is his PR from Zurich 1987 on YouTube (one year before Butch Reynolds ran his 43.29 WR)

If you have athletes who are afraid to go out hard for the first 200m, please show them this video!