More cheers for plucky Olympic antihero Issaka
Niger’s Hamadou Djibo Issaka, whose spectacularly poor performances have endeared him to London 2012 spectators, has been in action again.
The 35-year-old rower came in last again in Tuesday’s 2,000m semifinal, lagging behind the other competitors by 300m.
Issaka’s performances are getting worse. He finished Sunday’s repechage in 8min 39secs, but slumped to a time of 9min 7secs on Tuesday, one minute and ten seconds behind his closest rival.
But the crowd of mainly British spectators have been cheering the underdog’s efforts with gusto, recalling previous Olympic antiheroes Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards and Eric “the Eel” Moussambani.
More than 20,000 people roared Issaka on as he crawled over the finish line before slumping exhausted over the oars on Tuesday.
The media has so far failed to agree on the definitive nickname for the latest star underachiever, with some newspapers christening the rower Issaka the Otter and others favouring “the sculling sloth”.
Issaka, who works as a gardener and swimming-pool attendant in the poverty-stricken Niger, has only been training properly for three months and has been forced to go abroad to practise with foreign coaches, as there are no proper sculls in his landlocked desert homeland.
But he has vowed to improve and says he is looking forward to competing at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
I’ve been learning only three months. But with the time and the years, I’ll get the technique. Issaka
Issaka told reporters: “I don’t have any technique. I’ve been learning only three months. But with the time and the years, I’ll get the technique.
“It’s all about courage. I’m getting ready for (2016). The crowd encourage me and helps me finish the race.”
Ahmadou Youssoufou, a member of the Niger NOC and president of the water sports federation of Niger, said: “In the next Olympiad, in the next Games, Hamadou will be stronger and faster.
“We don’t have any boats. No boats. We are getting two single sculls and two double sculls and some oars. They are coming in the next month so we can begin this sport in our country with the equipment.”
Issaka started out as a swimmer but switched to rowing and spent two weeks training in Egypt, two months in Tunisia and a week in Belgium before boarding a plane for London.
He has only been given a place in the competition thanks to a wild card rule designed to encourage participation in sport in the developing world by offering extra places.
Eagle, Eel…Sloth?
The “continental representation” policy trumps an earlier rule designed to avoid a repeat of the publicity that surrounded the British ski jumper Eddie Edwards’s efforts at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988.
Edwards was Britain’s top ski jumper at the time, but was only ranked 55th globally, and he finished last in the 70m and 90m jump events.
Amid concerns that the Eagle’s popularity was drawing attention away from more serious-minded competitors, the International Olympic Committee brought in the “Eddie the Eagle rule”, requiring athletes to place in the top 30 per cent or top 50 worldwide before they can be considered for a place at the Games.
But a wild card can trump that rule, leading to stardom for swimmer Eric Moussambani in Sydney in 2000.
Like the Otter, the Eel had only taken up his sport months before the Games, and he was forced to train in a 20m hotel pool thanks to a similar lack of facilities in his homeland of Equatorial Guineau.
Moussambani swam his heat on his own after the other two competitors were disqualified for false starts and he appeared to almost sink from fatigue near the finish.
Roared on by the 17,000-strong crowd, the Eel completed his heat in a time of 1:52.72, was the slowest ever seen at an Olympics.
There are better scullers from different countries who are not allowed to compete because of the different countries you’ve got. Sir Steve Redgrave
Wild card system criticised
Britain’s most successful Olympian, rower Sir Steve Redgrave, has questioned the value of letting untried athletes compete at Olympic level.
Sir Steve said: “There are better scullers from different countries who are not allowed to compete because of the different countries you’ve got.”
Rowing’s governing body FISA has since written to him pointing out that a wild card competitor does not take the place of another athlete.
Redgrave’s words have apparently failed to resonate with the crowds who have taken Issaka to their hearts, apparently in sympathy with Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin’s famous statement that the most important thing in the Games “is not winning but taking part”.