North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: From Friendless to Fastest
3/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Track
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – When A'Tolani Akinkuotu's family moved to America from Lagos, Nigeria, when he was just 10 years old, he absolutely hated his new home.
He was living just outside of Greenville, N.C., during the mean years of his youth, when other kids made fun of his heavy African accent and his rapid-fire speech. He was about as different from the rest of his classmates as he could be. He wanted to go back to his old neighborhood, where everyone spoke like he did and he was the fastest kid on the playground.
He made no real friends and he missed the ones he had back home.
"It took some getting used to," Akinkuotu said. "I didn't want to be here."
But his parents, Fola and Remi Akinkuotu, made the decision to bring their three children to the United States in the summer of 1998 to take advantage of the educational opportunities in America and were willing to split the family apart to do it. Remi, nurse, and the three children moved to Greenville to be near Fola's older brother, while he stayed back home in Nigeria to be a commercial airline pilot.
He visited the family two or three times a year for extended stays, but his absence made things even more awkward for his only son. But, as A'Tolani grew up, he learned there was one proven way to make friends. And it wasn't in his advanced placement and accelerated classrooms.
"I got into sports," Akinkuotu said. "And when you are in elementary school and middle school and you are good in sports that is your entry way into friendship. I started playing basketball, football and soccer.
"And I ran track."
In fact, he was the fastest kid on the playground here too. By the time he was in high school, he was fast enough to win the 2006 NCHSAA 3-A state championships in both the 100- and 200-meter races. He received some interest from colleges, but he had his eyes on enrolling at NC State's nationally acclaimed engineering program.
He figured it was time to put away his sports equipment and concentrate on academics, especially since he had chosen the demanding field of aerospace engineering. That was, after all, why his parents sacrificed so much, so their kids could get a good education.
"My parents wanted me to choose my college based on academics, not on athletics," Akinkuotu said. "So I knew I wanted to go to NC State for a long time."
After only a couple months on campus, though, he discovered that he sorely missed the rush of competition on the track. So in October of his freshman year, he asked NC State assistant track coach Terry Reese if he could still walk on to the team. Reese had some limited contact with Akinkuotu while he was in high school and talked to him occasionally, but the young runner made it clear he was concentrating on academic pursuits.
Now, three years later, Akinkuotu is one of the fastest sprinters in the nation.
Going into Friday's NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Little Rock, Arkansas, the senior sprinter has the second fastest time in the 60-meter dash of any runner in the country. He set that personal mark of 6.60 seconds during a preliminary race at the ACC Championships a few weeks back, though he lost in the finals by a .01 second blink of the eye.
"I can't lie and say I wasn't disappointed not to win the ACC championship my senior year," said Akinkuotu. "To lose it by such a small margin and with a time that was significantly slower time than I ran in the prelims, I almost feel like I let myself down.
"But you can't dwell on the past. I would definitely take a national championship over the ACC championship any day of the week."
Akinkuotu has improved in each of his four years of competition, breaking the school mark in the 60 meters at least once every year. He's continued to shave time off his personal best, thanks to Reese's guidance and his own attention to minute details.
Akinkuotu concentrates on making sure he comes out of the block at the right angle, that he gets into an upright stride position at the right time and makes the perfect stretch at the end. One minor mistake can cost him the hundredths of a second that separates first and second place.
"Coach Reese has always put me in position to peak at the right time," Akinkuotu said. "Because the 60-meter dash is so short, technique and detail can make all the difference in the world. It gets to a point where it's not so much the physical and endurance training that you do, it is all about getting all those things done your start, how you transition and how you finish.
"Those are things the coach always has me focus on."
Akinkuotu is confident he can perform well in his first trip to the indoor national championship meet. He's peaking at the right time and his technique is practically perfect.
And he's secure in his future. He will graduate in May with his engineering degree, and has recently finished his application to law school. His older sister will graduate in May from UNC's medical school.
His father will be in the U.S. next week for an extended stay with the family.
And he has all the friends a college kid could want.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
