Chinecherem Nnamdi made history Friday as the first Nigerian, man or woman to win a javelin medal at a global competiton for Nigeria after throwing 74.48m to win the bronze medal at the ongoing World Athletics U-20 championships in Nairobi.
The 19 year old was tipped to challenge for the gold after throwing a massive new personal best of 78.02m to top the qualifiers on Wednesday but Finland’s Janne Laspa threw 76.46m to win the gold ahead of the pre-championships favourite, Ukraine’s Artur Felfner whose 76.32m effort was only good for the silver medal.
Felfner opened the battle for gold with a 76.31m throw in the first round with Nnamdi managing 70.57m to place second after the first round of throws.
Laspa moved into second place after throwing 73.25m in the second round with the Nigerian improving to 72.63m.
Also Read: World Athletics U-20: Onwuzurike, Ofili Qualify For Men And Women’s 200m Final
The Finnish landed the gold winning throw in the third round with his 76.46m throw while both Felfner and Nnamdi failed to respond appropriately as the Ukrainian only added a centimetre to his first round throw.
Nnamdi has now become the second Nigerian to win a field event medal in the history of the championships after Esther Aghatise who won a bronze medal in the long jump event in Kinsgton, Jamaica in 2002.
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COMMENTS
Haba Nigeria…dont we get tired of all these underaged successes that never seem to translate to success at senior level…? This chap in this picture in not under 20 years for the love of butterd bread. Haba.
That was how a so-called 17 year old Final year university student won a medal at the youth Olympics in Argentina a few years go. 17 year old….in his 5th year in a university of technology in Nigeria…? Haba….which implies he gained admission at 12 years of age
We win all these medals at age grade level and comeback home with one silver and one bronze at the Olympics as our BEST performance in 13 years……dont we have shame…???
In football we have the most trophies from U tournaments in Africa but still struggling for a 4th AFCON trophy Ghana has won since 1982, Cameroon has won since 2002 and Egypt has won since 1998 or thereabout….yet im not sure all these teams have won more U-tournaments put together than us.
We have won junior afrobasket 7 times but needed all our foreign born mercenaries to win our 1st and only afrobasket a few years ago.
Haba…arent we supposed to be ashamed of ourselves…??
This man up there in this picture is DEFINITELY NOT A TEENAGER.
We Nigerians are never truthful to ourselves when it comes to age grade competitions. You’re right Ghana,Egypt, and Cameroun could’ve won even more afcon trophies in recent years. This guy is clearly in his mid late 20s and I’m still being economical with the truth lol.
Hehehehehehe, Dr Drey, you no go kill sombori ooo!
He may not be a teenager, but at least he is YOUNG AT HEART, loooool!
maybe the picture is not for the young man unless there is something they are not telling us. This whole country is a scam. You can’t tell us that the sport minister came back shamelessly from the Olympics and said that the have done better than the past 13 years Olympics. There is no point flogging a dead horse as all our politicians and ministers have sold there shame and consciences for the price of power and money. No sincere one amongst them so take heart my sport loving fans and sadly make up for their wickedness with European lean viewing.
Chineke! I just peeped – That guy in that pix should be between 35 – 40 ( shaved off about 15 years on his official passport).
Spot on @Dr.Drey. I was wondering too that the senior Olympics (the real deal) was on less than a month ago and Nigeria was overshadowed and outclassed everywhere. Barely seen even on the African medal’s table, so bad that the minister had to try saving face by resorting to classic mediocrity, celebrating a silver and a bronze for a 200-million country.
But as soon as soon as U-athletics tournament began, boom! We became sports superpowers again. Hehehehe. The world is no longer fazed by our backyard, cheating, shortcut glories. We think we’re doing them with our impressive U-something records.
Reminds of the FIFA 1993 Fanny Amun win in Japan with old man Sebastian Ojigwe & co and the 2017 win with the late Yemi Tella with only Haruna Lookman taking a step up, which was shortlived anyway. Kanu & Oruma did come through in the other set. No, Kanu only, really.
Kel, take ya time o. This young man in this pic? Forget the beards, na small boy. He can’t be more than 15 yrs old. He might even be 10 sef 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hehehehe. @pompei, My bad jare :).
Here we go again. Making the same mistakes year in year out, and expecting different results. This MAN has defeated teenage boys to win a medal. Congrats to him. My issue is not with him. It is with our administrators who are unable/unwilling to finetune our selection procedures. The levels of incompetence are just mind boggling. How do our officials allow this kind of thing to slip through the cracks, ad continuum? The cracks have gotten so big and wide, it is not even a question of slipping through anymore. The anomalies are just parading through now, with swagger.
The teenagers he defeated will soon grow up and reach their peak levels. Then the chickens will come home to roost.
That neck looks too comfortable holding that head. Tells a lot about his true age. This cheating tendency is now seem endemic. What a shame.
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