My experience as a student actively involved in sports [Part 1]

Nothing good comes easy for any person who wants to achieve something great in life. You must be ready to face the challenges that come with your ambition.

It takes courage to stand firm in your resolve when all the odds hit, but it takes faith to endure the pain – to keep moving on till the very end.

My name is Daniel Obukohwo Efagene, I am from Ughelli North local government area of Delta state, Nigeria. I was born in Enugu state and I grew up in Lagos state. I am a taekwondo athlete here in Nigeria and a Civil Engineering student at the Yaba College of Education (YABATECH), in Lagos, Nigeria.

My career as an athlete…

I started practicing the martial art, taekwondo in 2006 just after I finished my secondary school education.

What lead me into this kind of game, of all sports?

Naturally I’ve had this affinity for martial arts long before I even got to know it was called ‘martial art’ in the first place. Later, when I got to see some Chinese/Korean movies, I learned some of their names [martial arts] like kungfu, karate, taekwondo and so on.

One day, during the Sydney Olympics, I could recall clearly that I was seeing a taekwondo match on the television for the very first time, I do not know what country both athletes were representing as at that time but when I saw the way they fought, it triggered some kind of ‘anger’ [inspiration] within me, and I said to myself “I can do this”. That was how I fell in love with the game of Taekwondo.

At first, my parents did not approve of me practicing taekwondo. They would rebuke me whenever I was about to go for practice and when I return as well. It was rough for me back then until they came to realise that there was nothing they could do or say would stop me from doing what I loved doing.

My mother was the first to give up on stopping me just after a few months. Later, I took part in my first tournament and I lost. It felt so bad that my dad had to encourage me with kind words and that was how he became my supporter as well.

Ever since, my story changed drastically for good, even though I still had to deal with some challenges along the way. I will share with you more on this in my next blog post.

Written by Obukohwo Efagene