Nigeria’s 110m hurdlers made a clean sweep of the medals in the event on Wednesday night, leaving their Algerian, South African and Malian rivals trailing in their wake on Day Four of competition at the African Senior Championships in Marrakech, Morocco.
National champion, Tyron Akins confirmed his status as the athlete to beat as he claimed his first African title in his debut outing at the championships, and only his second for Nigeria, with 13.57s. This follows his participation at the Commonwealth games where he just missed out on the Finals. He came to Marrakech as No.3 on the African list for 2014 but upstaged the rest of the field to clinch the title. The last time Nigeria won the 110m hurdles was in 1996 when national record holder in the event, William Erese mounted the podium in Yaounde, Cameroun!
Another new Nigerian athlete, Alex Al-Ameen, who was Nigeria’s No.2 from the National Trials, won silver in 13.78s. He came to the championship as the continent’s 2nd fastest athlete this year, behind Algeria’s Lyes Mokddel who competed in the heats but didn’t show up for the final. Al-Ameen competed in the Commonwealth Games and put up an impressive performance to get to the final of the event where he finished in seventh.
The only home-based athlete amongst them and Nigeria’s No.3, Martins Ogierakhi clocked 13.80s to secure the bronze medal. Ogierakhi holds the top position on the home front as he won all legs of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Golden League and was one of the winners of the much anticipated N2million jackpot. He is also the winner of the last three editions for the National Sports Festival in Nigeria, which will be opened to foreign-based Nigerians for the very first time this year! He’ll have his hands full this time around with Akins and Al-Ameen in the mix!
Unfortunately, only Akins will fly Nigeria’s flag at the forthcoming IAAF Continental Cup, which incidentally holds in Marrakech, as only two athletes represent the continent in each event, and they cannot be from the same country!
