Track: Nigerian athlete’s greatest hurdle

Never can there have been greater glory in Olympic defeat. At the last of the 10 flights in Glory Alozie's lane on Wednesday night, the Nigerian lost the final of the women's 100 metres hurdles.

Her loss, as Olga Shishigina flashed by to sntach the gold medal, was nothing compared to the one she suffered three weeks ago.

Olympic history has been littered with inspirational tales of triumph over tragedy, but few can match that which Alozie writ large across the Games of the XXVII Olympiad here last night.

Clutching her silver medal in the stadium tunnel, she choked back tears and said: "I dedicate this medal to my fiancé. I wish he was here to see it."

Hyginus Anugo arrived in Sydney on 5 September to help his future wife prepare for the Games. An international athlete himself, he had missed the final selection for Nigeria's 4x400m relay team and travelled from the national squad's pre-Games training base in Adelaide to arrange private accommodation in Sydney.

Three weeks ago tonight, after evening prayers in the halls of residence at Southern Cross College in the south western suburbs of the city, he set off to buy snack food at a nearby store and ran out into a busy road. He was killed instantly.

He and Alozie were from the same village, near Lagos. They moved to Valencia three years ago to train together for Sydney. They were to have been married early next year.

Alozie was in Japan at the time of the accident, en route to a a meeting in Yokohama. She was told that Anugo had been badly injured by a car but not that the 22-year-old love of her life was dead.

The tragic news was broken by her team-mates when she arrived at Kingsford Smith Airport in Sydney. They wanted to be on hand to console her.

For four days Alozie grieved in her room in the Olympic Village. Then she agonised about whether to compete. She resolved to do so when Damishi Sango, Nigeria's sports minister, visited her and said: "Go and win the gold medal for Hyginus. It is what he would have wanted."

The colour of the medal Alozie wore around her neck last night was incidental. The hurdle she had surmounted to reach the podium was greater than any she will ever clear on a track.

The remarkable little African woman had become so frail from loss of appetite she had been force-fed by her Spanish coach, Rafael Blanque, in recent days. From somewhere, the 5ft 1in athlete summoned the strength to come within 0.03sec of the gold medal.

"I am happy with the silver medal," Alozie said. "It means so much to me because of the difficult times I have passed through these past few weeks. When it was presented to me I was thinking of my fiancé and of when I heard the news. I can't express how I feel.

"I am grateful to God for giving me the strength to see me through. I am also grateful to the people who have encouraged me, the coaches, the athletes, the people back home in Nigeria. I have had so many faxes, so many e-mails, so many cards, so many letters."|

The ordeal is not yet over for Alozie. Her fiancé's body is still in Sydney. She will fly to Nigeria with it when the Games finish on Sunday.

For Anugo's father, though, the ordeal has yet to begin. He has been in a Lagos hospital for the past month, recovering from a stroke.

He has yet to be told that his son is dead. Doctors fear the news would kill him.

- INDEPENDENT