Cindy Ofili: Sister act

Cindy Ofili came of age at the Rio Olympics when she finished fourth in the final of the women’s 100m hurdles in 12.63. With Nia Ali running 12.59 for silver and Kristi Castlin taking bronze with 12.61 behind the gold medallist Brianna Rollins, Ofili was so close to a medal.

The women’s sprint hurdles was arguably the most loaded event in Rio, with the United States taking a one-two-three despite world record-holder Kendra Harrison and double Olympic medallist Dawn Harper-Nelson not in the US team.

Ofili relishes the competition.

“It makes the event very exciting and it certainly keeps you on your toes,” she says. “You need to be running your best and performing your best not to be knocked out. It is motivation.

“When you see other people doing their best it makes you want to do your best.”

She grew up in Michigan, younger sister of Tiffany Porter, so inevitably she would also become a hurdler. Well, actually it is far from as simple as that. She started to take athletics seriously when she was about 15.

“Initially I wasn’t even thinking about hurdles,” she admits. “My sister has always been a hurdler, but I wanted to go my own route. I was playing other sports like basketball and volleyball. Then one day my coach said, ‘Do you want to try hurdles? You are tall and I think you have the ability to do it.’ When I tried it, it kind of clicked and I thought, ‘perhaps I should take this more seriously’.”

“When you see other people doing their best it makes you want to do your best”

It wasn’t all plain sailing, as she admits she initially didn’t have the best technique.

“I was very clumsy and falling a lot but then things started to click,” she says. “One day I was practising — and I remember it as if it was yesterday — I was doing drills and everything just came together. And my coach said, ‘whoa, you are starting to understand this really well.’”

Ofili studied education at the University of Michigan and she is currently in school every day as a student teacher, shadowing the lead teacher, learning how to teach and how to work with kids. She will finish in December and become a full-time athlete from that …

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