It was a bit of hit and miss for Team Nigeria as Athletics took centre stage at the Games on Friday. The country’s athletes took part in 5 events with only 2 of them progressing into the next stage.
In the recently introduced 4 by 400 metres mixed relay, the quartet of Samuel Ogazi, Ella Onojuvwevwo, Emmanuel Ojeli and Patience Okon George created a New National Record time of 3 minutes, 11. 99 seconds but failed to qualify for the final as they placed 9th on the time slot. Temitope Adeshina also missed out on the high jump as her leap of 1.88 metres was not good enough.
Elsewhere, the trio of Anumba Ashley, Onyekwere Chioma and Amaechi Obiageri all fell short in the qualifying round in Women’s Discus.
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Rosemary Chukwuma’s 11.26 seconds, 3rd place finish in Heat 5 of the Women’s 100 metres was enough to book a semi final spot but Tima Godbless was eliminated after placing 6th in heat 7 with a time of 11.33 seconds. Chukwuebuka Enekwechi also progressed into the final of the Men’s Shot Put with a throw of 21.13 metres to place 9th in the final 12-man roster.
Today, Chukwuma will race in Heat 2 Lane 1 of the Women’s 100 metres semi final by 6.50pm. Nigerian time. If she comes close to her Personal Best time of 10.88 seconds, then she has a great chance of making the final.
Enekwechi will also compete in the Final of the Men’s Shot Put. Ranked 8th in the world, the big man has an outside chance of a medal if he can find his best form at the right time.
The 100 metres men also starts today with Kayinsola Ajayi expected to fight for a semi final spot.
Is there a surprise in the offing for Team Nigeria??
By Deji Omotoyinbo, in Paris
3 Comments
Can somebody explain why another final prospect in the Men’s 100m Ogbenebrume Godson is also excluded from the 100m Round one participants??? What’s happening to Nigeria is there an agenda to sabotage our best athletes in this Olympics??? South Africa and CiV have their best reps except Nigeria, How can a country be ran by incompetent or corrupt authorities??? Why would these athletes work hard to qualify as champions from various discipline and be denied participation??? This is disturbing because the weaker athletes are the ones out there yet we expect to see something promising. Must this people bribe after making us proud??????? Another show of shame awaits us today!!!
I thought I was the only one who noticed it. Because it happened in both men and women events, and because the affected athletes are our best, I’m assuming it’s an error somewhere within the main Olympic not Nigeria.
This is true