2. Women’s 400m
The women’s 400m is a delight to watch any day, and favoured to retain the national title is Patience Okon-George who has become Nigeria’s most consistent athlete in the event.
Okon-George comes with a PB of 50.71s, which earned her the Silver medal behind Kabange Mupopo of Zambia at the 2015 African Games in Brazzaville. She once again lost out to Mupopo at last month’s African Championships in Durban, settling for Bronze instead.
That notwithstanding, she maintains her lead position as Nigeria’s fastest quartermiler in 2016 with a Season’s Best (SB) of 51.06s. However her stiffest competitor will be University of Notre Dame’s graduate Margaret Bamgbose, who has a SB/PB of 51.11s.
Bamgbose has had a string of good performances this year, with the most recent being at the NCAA Championships where she finished 4th. The 23-year old will be aiming for her first national title and hopefully, her first sub-51s.
Other athletes such as Omolara Omotosho, Yinka Ajayi and Folasade Abugan, will be gunning for the Olympic qualifying mark and may be in for upsets.
Former National Champion, Regina George won’t be a push over as well as she has remained relevant in the country’s female quater-mile scene.
