Team Nigeria hope of landing another medal at the ongoing World Athletics U20 Championship suffered a huge blow yesterday, as the country lost two medals in the sprint event.
Recall that the quartet of Johnson Nnamani, Imaobong Nse Uko, Opeyemi Oke and Bamidele Ajayi had on Wednesday, won Nigeria’s first medal at the competition, having ran an African and championship record of 3:19.70 to emerge winners of 4x400m mixed relay event.
However, that was not the case in the women’s 100m race, as Praise Ofoku came fourth in the race won by Jamaica’s Tina Clayton in 11.09 seconds.
The Nigerian ran 11.53 seconds. Namibian Beatice Masilingi was second in 11.39 seconds, while Melissa Gutschmidt was third in 11.51 seconds. Ofoku had come from behind to win the ticket to the final on Wednesday.
Having missed an opportunity to finish at the podium, in the women category, attention shifted to the men’s sprint event, but one of Nigeria’s best men’s junior sprinters, Godson Brume, could not live up to the expectations as he trailed his competitors at 10.74 seconds.
The race was won by Botswana’ s Letsile Tebogo in 10.19 seconds, just as South Africa and Cuba were second and third respectively.
Meanwhile, two Nigerian athletes, who could not travel with the team on Sunday over COVID-19 protocol, arrived in Nairobi in the early hours of Thursday.
The arrival of the duo of Esther Osisike, a female discus thrower, and Sarah Ochigbo (400m hurdles) is a major boost to Nigeria’s quest for another medal.
Nnamdi Chinecherem will be on duty today in the javelin event.
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