IAAF
Nigeria once again failed to win a single medal at the IAAF Indoor Championships, which was hosted this term by Birmingham, England. This is the fifth consecutive championship that the country would be missing from the podium since Olusoji Fasuba’s gold medal in 2008.
Nigeria’s best performer in Birmingham was sprint hurdler, Tobiloba Amusan, who qualified for the 60m hurdles final (7.91), although she made it as one of the fastest losers. In the final race, she finished seventh in the event won by USA’s Kendra Harrison, who ran a new 7.70 seconds personal best and championships record.
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Nigeria began the championships on a bad note when Patience Okon-George failed to show up for her 400m first round heat, while another quartermiler, Chidi Okezie could only finish in 48.53 seconds to place 17th out of 18 participants in the semifinal.
Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, a shot putter, continued the sad tale when he could only hurl 19.78m to place 14th out of the 16 contestants for three podium appearances.
Like Okon-George, the women’s 4x400m relay team did not show up at the championships, a situation that left duo of ‘Jesus’ hurdler, Lindley Lindsay and Amusan to salvage Nigeria.
Lindley could not move past the semi-final stage (8.08), while Amusan ran all the way to the final to become the second Nigerian man or woman to run in the final of the 60m hurdles event at the championships.
Source: G Sport
