Track and field stars led by two-time world champion sprinter Frankie Fredericks of Namibia are expected this weekend to fire up much-needed local interest in Abuja after most fans have so far given "The African Olympics" a big miss.
Athletics is the second most followed sport in Nigeria after football and the country has celebrated several world beaters on the tracks including 1996 Olympic champion Chioma Ajunwa.
And after gate fees were scrapped for most of the events including athletics, organisers expect a much more encouraging turn out of spectators rather than the thousands of empty seats that have devalued the seven day-old competition.
"Track and field events should draw an appreciable crowd right down to the closing day because the hosts have several medal hopefuls in this event," said Dominic Uzunaji, a Nigerian journalist who is covering the games.
Nigeria topped the athletics event four years ago in Johannesburg with 13 gold medals, one more than rivals South Africa, and a total of 24 games records were broken.
The host team will again hope top prevail in the sprints with the likes of sub-10 seconds sprinters Deji Aliu and Uchenna Emedolu among the favourites in the men's 100m and 200m while team captain Mary Onyali and Endurance Ojokolo are poised to extend their stranglehold in the women's race.
Mercy Nku created a games record to win the women's 100m in Johannesburg and has a chance to defend her title after her ban was lifted recently following a face-off with officials at the World Champs in Paris.
However, former Nigerian chief coach Tony Uhrobo, who is in Abuja as technical head of Benin's team, has warned that the hosts may not find the going easy.
"The sprints will be anybody's game — Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal and Namibia with Fredericks will all be challenging Nigeria here," warned Uhrobo, who also served as boss of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
"The recent troubles in the Nigerian team may also unsettle them."
The top athletics official is also confident of top quality performances despite the absence of established stars like women 800m world champion Maria Mutola from Mozambique and South Africa's world high jump champions, Hestrie Cloete and Jacques Freitag.
"I expect several young stars to show what they are capable of and with the Abuja Stadium track being one of the fastest in Africa, many of these upcoming stars should post personal best times," he predicted.
"There should also be African records in the sprints hurdles, men and women, men's 400m while Ethiopia and Kenya will continue to dominate in the middle and long distance races and South Africa in the more technical field events especially the throws."
South Africa have replaced their women's world high jump champion Cloete with youngsters, Anika Smit and Maracas Gertehbag, whose personal bests are 1.86m and 1.90m, respectively.
"These girls are the future of the sport in South Africa. Smit was at the World Youth Championship in Canada in July while Gertehbag featured at the World Athletics Games and in Abuja they will begin to show their promise," said Martin Marx, who is also coach of the absentee Cloete.
Burkinabe high jumper, Zara Ouedraogo, who has a best jump of 1.84m and won gold at the African Junior Championships in Kumasi in 1999, has already conceded defeat to the South Africans.
"I will be happy to win the bronze because the winners are there training," said the high school student with a chuckle as she pointed at the South African pair being put through the paces by their coach on Friday at the practice grounds of the Abuja Stadium.
