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Coro: Fast feet, mind fit Knowledge
5/21/2019 10:49:00 AM | Track and Field, Paul Coro
GCU track star perseveres after father's passing
Knowledge Omovoh bears a striking name for a college student, but how and where she is thriving in college goes beyond living up to the name.
The Grand Canyon sophomore was born to run. Her mother, Grace, was a month past due with her in Nigeria when she went to a local track to nudge her with a jog that induced labor.
Omovoh's father, Joseph, initially was opposed to her track participation because he wanted to focus on education, and when he saw a GCU advertisement he told her she should attend the Christian university. But then, just two weeks after she arrived on the Phoenix campus in January, he passed away in Nigeria.
Life this year has been a whirlwind, like a cultural tornado for Omovoh. New education format. New food. New friends. New track training. Her father's death came right before the WAC Indoor Championships in February, when she stepped on a lane line to negate the 400-meter conference title she had promised her father.
If Knowledge is power, Omovoh epitomizes it after also overcoming an in-season foot injury to be one of nine GCU athletes who qualified to compete this week at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships in Sacramento.
"I never knew I could come this far," Omovoh said. "When I remembered the promises I made to my father, I kept pushing. That was one reason that I overcame all the challenges. My dad is motivation that I have. He always wanted me to do well in school."
Omovoh is the youngest of her father's 25 children, a common size in some Nigerian families with multiple mothers. Omovoh's middle name is Patience for more than her mother's extended labor. She had five sons before Omovoh and waited eight years between her youngest son and Omovoh.
Success among her siblings is rampant. Their father was a divisional police officer in charge of a Nigerian police station. The psychology major's 15 brothers and nine sisters produced more achievements than some small American towns with politicians, engineers, lawyers, a doctor and a teacher.
"I grew up in a family where you have to convince them about what you want to do and show some proof," Omovoh said.
That was the case when Omovoh began running track just four years ago. Her father did not envision a place where she could pursue higher education and run competitively, so he forbade track participation. It was ultimately his GCU suggestion for education that provided a route to both.
Omovoh quickly progressed to youth national teams and drew interest from other U.S. college programs, but she only had applied to GCU and sent a Facebook message to Lopes head coach Tom Flood.
"Divine intervention," Flood said.
He immediately replied, much to the surprise of Omovoh. They quickly connected in conversations, and that relationship has strengthened further since she joined the team on campus.
"I think everything was just God's plan for me to be at GCU," Omovoh said. "When I first got here, I struggled with food. I struggled with acclimatization. I haven't trained this hard all my life. Everything was new to me and overwhelming.
"I found a new family here, which is GCU track and field. Everybody has been so awesome. I have a friend (senior teammate Shanice Lewis) who helped me adapt and is more like a sister. She was there from the very beginning when I got here and has been there for me. Coach Flood also has been like a father figure to me. Everybody treats me like family here. It became easier because the love from them is just too much."
She misses her mother's soup but the campus Qdoba and the track became her go-to spots. Her work ethic burns for improvement and it showed with a time of 53.83 at the Desert Heat Classic after missing five weeks of training because of the foot injury.
She is motivated by friends from Nigeria who already star on the NCAA circuit, such as top-ranked sprinter Divine Oduduru of Texas Tech.
"She has legit international ability," Flood said of Omovoh. "She's that good. With the whole fall in our program next year, the sky's the limit.
"She's done an incredible job. She literally hit the ground running. She came in a little out of shape and had never run indoor. Different-sized tracks. A lot of elevation. There was a lot to adjust to. Academic load. Athletic load. She did a wonderful job."
Omovoh aspires to be an Olympian, a dream she once shared with her father. He lived long enough to see her track success and embraced her plan and potential.
She ran the WAC Indoor Championships before he was buried. She had never run indoor track, a shorter oval with sharper, banked turns, and stepped on the lane line before the runners broke from their lanes at the midway point. It was devastating but understandable considering she had only one month of NCAA experience.
With time, it did not steal her pride. She gave herself the win for her and her father.
"He was my best friend," Omovoh said. "It was just too much for me because I didn't get to say anything to him before he died. He wanted me to do well in whatever I wanted to do. He wanted to see me go to the very top that I can. I told him that I want to be an Olympian and break records. He said, 'OK, I'm right behind you.' "
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