The Blessing Okagbare led Nigeria’s 4x100m Women’s quartet increased their rankings from top 16 to top 15 as curtain was drawn on the 2020 Olympic Games Trials in Lagos yesterday.
On a day that heavy downpour almost pushed the final day of the Meet forward to today, Okagbare who had on Thursday won the Women’s 100m with a 10.63secs, anchored the quartet of Grace Nwokocha, Rosemary Chukwuma and Blessing Ogundiran to an improved 42.97sec.
However, the men’s sprint quartet were not that lucky. The 39.04secs clocked by Enoch Adejoke, Jerry Jakpa, Usheoritse Itsekiri and Godson Brume means they still need to fight harder to make the cut to the Games in Japan next month.
The Lagos Open Athletics Meet scheduled to begin on Thursday at the Teslim Balogun Stadium appears another window for the quartet to increase their ranking and make the top 16 .
Both the men and women’s teams could not achieve the dream of improved performances in the 1600m relay events.
The men’s team, which stands at 17th, face a herculean task as they have to run at least 3.02.40 seconds to leapfrog other teams in the race to Tokyo.
They ran 3.05.57secs yesterday.
In all, the four-day Olympics Trial was a much improvement on previous ones in the last three years both in terms of organization and quality of races, jumps and throws.
Over 20 foreign-based athletes made the trials. From Queen of the track, Blessing Okagbare to the likes of Ruth Usoro, Rilwan Alowonle, Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, Favour Ofili, Chidi Okezie, Seye Ogunlewe, Rosemary Chukwuka, Alex Al-Ameen, Dotun Ogundeji, Oyesade Olatoye and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Mike Edwards, Annette Echikunwoke and Chioma Onyekwere.
Despite running 10.63 with a tailwind of 2.7, nothing removes quality from Okagbare’s readiness to shock the world in Tokyo next month.
She was the cynosure of all eyes as she took to the track on the opening day, running to the staggering 10.63secs to win her eight national title, after achieving same feat between 2009 and 2014.
She skipped the trials in 2015 before returning for her seventh title in 2016, the last time she competed at the national trials.
In the men’s version of the sprint, Adegoke, a bubbling star won the men’s 100m race in a staggering 10.00secs, thereby achieving the Olympic standard as he joined the likes of Divine Oduduru, Raymond Ekevwo and Usheoritse Itsekiri, who already made the cut.
Former BBNaija house mate, Mike Edwards, nearly turned the arena upside down during his event, the men’s high jump, as his fans since the days of the Big Brother house continued to shout his name at every moment of his jump.
Esther Issa was not left out of the accolade as she jumped a new Personal Best of 1.88m while Chidi Okezie and Patience Okon-George shine in the 400m for men and women respectively.
Oyesade Olatoye got her first ever gold medal on Nigeria soil, emerging winner in the women’s shot put.
What would have been the icing on the cake was the 100m hurdles final but was marred by a little glitch with the timer malfunctioning as Tobi Amusan raced to the finishing line in 12.3secs, though hand-timed. Oyeniyi Abejoye also wins the men’s 110m hurdles.