Sunday Bada (22 June 1969 – 12 December 2011) was a Nigerian sprinter who specialized in the 400 metres event. He won three medals at the World Indoor Championships, including a gold medal in 1997. His personal best time was 44.63 seconds, and with 45.51 seconds indoor he holds the African indoor record. He set a national record in the

4 x 400 metres relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

at the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

, where the Nigerian team also won gold medals after the disqualification of the US.

Early career

Bada was born in

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the gateway to northern Nige ...

to parents from Ogidi,

Kogi Kogi State is a state in the North Central region of Nigeria, bordered to the west by the states of Ekiti and Kwara, to the north by the Federal Capital Territory, to the northeast by Nasarawa State, to the northwest by Niger State, to th ...

State. He broke through at the regional level in 1990, with bronze medals in both 200 and 400 metres at the 1990 African Championships. The next year, at the

1991 All-Africa Games The 5th All-Africa Games were held from September 20 to October 1, 1991, in Cairo, Egypt. Forty-three countries participated in eighteen sports. For the first time the Games were held on a four-year cycle as planned. Egypt had hoped to use the G ...

, he won a silver in the 400 metres. He competed without reaching the final in the 400 metres of the 1992 Olympics, but in the

he managed to finish fifth with the Nigerian team. The same year he broke the 45-second barrier by running the 400 m in 44.99 seconds, in September in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. This happened at the

1992 IAAF World Cup The 6th IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations, held on September 25–27, 1992, at the Estadio Panamericano in Havana, Cuba. Overall ...

, an event he won. Bada became Nigerian 400 metres champion in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. He also participated in, and won, the Indian championships in 1994.

World championships

Bada made his definite breakthrough in 1993, when he won the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships. In the same year he finished fifth at the 1993 World Championships. In the World Championships final he clocked in 44.63 seconds, the second fastest time ever by a Nigerian sprinter, after

Innocent Egbunike Innocent Ejima Egbunike (born 30 November 1961) is a former sprinter from Nigeria. He studied at Azusa Pacific University, where he still holds the school record at 400 metres and the automatically timed NAIA meet record at 200 metres. M ...

's 44.17 s. In 1994 he added almost a second to his season's best, running in 45.55 seconds in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. The season highlight was a bronze medal at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

. In 1995, however, he gained his second silver medal at the World Indoor Championships whereas at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

he finished eighth. In the 1995 World Championships relay he won a bronze medal together with teammates Udeme Ekpeyong, Kunle Adejuyigbe and Jude Monye. Finally, at the All-Africa Games he won the 200 metres and took the 400 m silver. He ran 44.83 seconds as a season's best in 1995; then 44.88 in 1996. At the 1996 Olympics he reached the final in neither

400 __NOTOC__ Year 400 ( CD) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus (or, less frequently, year ...

nor the

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

. In the 1996–97 indoor season he achieved his best result with a gold medal at the World Indoor Championships. He ran in 45.51 seconds, a life best performance indoor, and also the African indoor record for the event. However, Bada just barely managed to improve this time during the outdoor season, with 45.37 seconds, and would never run a sub-45 race again. In individual competitions he was successively eliminated before the final of the 1997 World Championships, the 1999 World Indoor Championships, the 1999 World Championships, the 2000 Olympic Games, the 2001 World Indoor Championships and 2001 World Championships. A highlight in these years was the 4 x 400 m relay at the

, where the Nigerian team won silver medals, later upgraded to gold after the disqualification of the US. Nigeria also established a national record time of 2:58.68 minutes.

Post-active career

Bada retired following the 2001 season. After his active career Bada was the technical director of the

Athletics Federation of Nigeria The Athletics Federation of Nigeria is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Nigeria. It is a member of the Confederation of African Athletics and the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was founded as the Central Com ...

. He died in December 2011 at the

National Stadium, Lagos The Lagos National Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Surulere, Lagos State, Nigeria, which comprises an Olympic-size swimming arena and a multipurpose arena used for athletics, rugby, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, wrestling and box ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bada, Sunday 1969 births 2011 deaths Nigerian male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Nigeria Olympic gold medalists for Nigeria Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Sportspeople from Kaduna World Athletics Championships medalists Yoruba sportspeople Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Nigeria African Games gold medalists for Nigeria African Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1995 All-Africa Games World Athletics Indoor Championships winners World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists Medallists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games