TEAM Nigeria mine an additional gold medal at the ongoing African Senior Athletics Championships in Douala, Cameroon on Sunday.
The gold medal was secured in the women’s Long Jump event through World Championship silver medalist Ese Brume. Brume put smiles on the faces of Nigerians by grabbing gold with a jump of 6.73m in her last attempt to seal victory.
Ese Brume becomes the first Long Jumper, male or female, to win four titles in the history of the African Athletics Championships, extending her dominance on the continent to a decade since winning her maiden title at the 2014 edition in Marrakech, Morocco.
Nigeria’s national record holder in the women’s High Jump, Temitope Adeshina settled for silver in Douala while Samuel Ogazi finished 3rd in the men’s 400m final. Senegal’s Cheikh Tidiana Diouf won the race in a time of 45.23 seconds.
In the women’s 400m final, Ello Esther Joseph also finished 3rd.
So far, Team Nigeria has won 3 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals.
This is Team Nigeria’s medal table at the Championships:
GOLD MEDAL
Men’s Shot Put:
•Chukwuebuka Enekwechi
Women’s Discus:
•Ashley Anumba
Women’s Long Jump:
•Ese Brume
SILVER MEDAL
Women’s Hammer:
•Sade Olatoye
Mix Relay:
•4×400m
Women’s Discus:
•Obiageri Amaechi
Women’s High Jump:
•Temitope Adeshina
BRONZE MEDAL
Women’s Discus:
•Chioma Onyekweri
Men’s Long Jump:
•Goodness Iredia
Men’s 400m
•Samuel Ogazi
Women’s 400m
•Esther Elo Joseph
Meanwhile, two top Nigerian athletes Favour Ofili and Rosemary Chukwuma’s business at the competition may have come to an end.
The duo failed to start in the semi-final heats of their respective events despite being confirmed to start which contravene the World Athletics technical rules concerning participation of athletes.
Rule 4.4 titled ‘’Failure to Participate’, sub-section 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 says ‘an athlete shall be excluded from participation in all further events (including other events in which they are simultaneously participating) in the competition, including relays, in cases where: (1) final confirmation was given that the athlete would start in an event but then failed to participate or (2) where an athlete qualified in any qualification round of an event for further participation in that event but then failed to participate further’.
While Amusan fell under the first category, the duo of Ofili and Chukwuma contravened the second.
The implication of this is that Nigeria may find it difficult to raise a competitive 4×100m relay team.
This same ugly development was exhibited by most foreign-based athletes during the National Trials.
They claimed that they were nursing some form of discomfort with their health and were advised by the medical team on ground in Benin to take some days off.
A technical official of the AthIetics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), assured them the rules won’t affect their participation at the Paris Olympics.
Additional report courtesy of AFN Media Support Team
Eighteen-Eleven Media