Nigeria’s 400 women’s champion, Folashade Abugan was denied a place on the podium as the Jamaicans made a clean sweep of all the medals up for grabs in the 400m at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday night, while Botswana’s Amantle Montsho who came to the Game as the defending champion was also denied a medal as she finished in 4th.
Abugan returned a time of 52.33s while the while newly crowned champion, Stephanie McPherson posted an impressive 50.67s, with compatriots Novlene Williams-Mills and Christine Day following with 50.86s and 51.09s respectively. Montsho just missed out on the Bronze, finishing in 51.10s.
In the men’s 110 Hurdles as Alex-Al-Ameen’s time of 13.77s couldn’t win him a medal as he finished in 7th. The 25-year old, who was the runner-up at the Nigerian Trials, had earlier qualified for the final as one of the fastest losers having placed 3rd in his heat behind eventual winner, Andrew Riley (13.47s) of Jamaica and Shane Brathwaite (13.54s) of Barbados. 2014 Nigerian Champion Tyrone Akins had crashed out in the heats earlier in the day, finishing in 4th with 13.75s while Nigeria No. 3 Martins Ogieriakhi who dominated the Domestic AFN Golden League this season finished in 6th in his heat in 14.13s.
Sean Obinwa competed in the First Round of the men’s 800m and also failed to qualify for the next stage as he finished 5th with a time of 1:50.59 in a heat that was won by South Africa’s Andre Olivier in 1:47.93s. In the men’s Long Jump Qualifying Round, the duo of Hamed Suleman and Samson Idiata could not sail through to the final as the former recorded No Jump while the latter made a leap of 7.57m which wasn’t adequate to see him through.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom though as national 400m Hurdles Champion, Amaka Ogoegbunam qualified as one of the fastest losers in the heats to secure a place in Thursday’s final. Ogoegunam who is making her debut to the Comonwealth Games, returned a time of 56.85s in Heat 3 behind Comonwealth No1, Kaliese Spencer (55.45s) and Australia’s Lauren Wells (55.79s).
