NIGERIAN athletes posted impressive performances on Wednesday to win gold in the mixed 4x400m relays and advance to the finals in men’s 100m, women’s 100m and the men’s javelin events at the World Athletics U-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.
In the mixed 4x400m relays, anchor leg Bamidele Ajayi finished strongly to lead Nigeria to the first-ever gold medal in the event.
Ajayi, Johnson Nnamani, Imabong Uko and Deborah Oke formed the quartet that won the gold medal and set a new Championship record of 3 minutes, 19.70 seconds to edge out Poland.
The Poles, who were leading in the fourth leg into the home straight before Bamidele’s valiant effort, won silver in 2:19.70, their season’s best time.
India claimed bronze in 3:20.60, also a season’s best for them.
In the men’s 100m, Godson Oghenebrume, the younger brother of Nigeria’s only athletics medallist at the Tokyo Olympics Ese Brume, won Heat 3 in 10.22 seconds to qualify for the final.
Overall, his time is the second best in the semi-finals, behind Letsile Tebogo’s 10.11s, which is a new national record.
Six other athletes will join Oghenebrume and Tebogo in Thursday’s final.
In the women’s 100m, Nigeria’s Praise Ofoku qualified for the final, while her compatriot Tima Godbless was not so fortunate.
Ofoku finished first in Heat 3 of the semi-finals in 11.57s, making her time the sixth fastest of the eight finalists.
Godbless, on her part, came fifth in Heat 2 in 11.61s and her time was not good to advance as one of the two non-automatic qualifiers.
In men’s javelin, Chinecherem Nnamdi set a new U-20 Nigerian record with a throw of 78.02 metres to qualify for the final.
Nnamdi’s mark is the best of all 12 throwers who qualified for the final.
Ukraine’s Artur Felfner (77.15m) and Finland’s Janna Laspa (77.10m personal best) were second and third respectively overall.
