Acting President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, Olamide George has expressed confidence that the team will qualify for not just the mixed relay event of Tokyo Olympics but also the men and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m events.
Olamide said this in the wake of the team’s decent performance at the PVAMU track meet in Texas on Wednesday, adding that there will be improvement in the next race after Nigeria moved within five places of qualifying for the events.
Team Nigeria’s 4x400m Mixed Relay team got off to a good start as the quartet of Nse Uko Imaobong, Patience Okon-George, Nathaniel Samson and Sikiru Adeyemi made history.
According to the latest ranking released by World Athletics, Nigeria is now 21st behind Germany who presently occupy the 16th qualifying spot for Tokyo Olympicss, Kenya, France, Czech Republic and Colombia.
“We are delighted with the performance of the team at the PVAMU meet here in Texas and believe we can do much better in our next race. We now know what we need to do to secure one of the four available slots on offer,” said George.
Nigeria will need to surpass the time ran by Germany (3:16.85) to become one of the 16 finalists for the event in Tokyo and George believes it can be done.
“Remember this is the first time ever that we are competing as a nation in the event. When we get the full complement of our team, I believe we will run faster than 3:16,’ he added and thanked the Honourable Minister for Youth and Sports Development, chief Sunday Dare for his support for the AFN.
“The Honourable Minister has been our pillar of strength in this Convid-19 pandemic era and we have keyed into his dream of returning Nigeria to the podium in track and field at the Olympics after 13 long years.”
