What a race it was! The final of the men’s 100m was a beauty to behold on Day 2 of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Golden League, which took place at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.
It had all the ingredients of a great race as 2017 National Junior Champion Usheoritse Itsekiri pulled off an upset to win the race in a time of 10.46s.
It wasn’t a smooth sail for him though, as he just narrowly beat Making of Champions’ (MoC) Jerry Jakpa who placed 2nd in the race, setting a new Personal Best (PB) for himself as he clocked a time of 10.49s, while former National Champion, Obinna Metu came 3rd in 10.51s.
A similar scenario played out in the women’s final as Isoken Igbinosun had to claw her way back to win the race after Maria Thompson-Omokwe led for the first 80m. Igbinosun who was absent at the All-Comers meet which took place a week ago in Abuja, stopped the clock in a time 11.42s (+2.5). Thompson-Omokwe (11.52) and Marvelous Asemota (11.70s) came in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Abejoye Oyeniyi and Grace Ayemoba were the athletes to beat in the men’s 110m Hurdles and women’s 100m Hurdles as they emerged victorious to clock times of 14.21s and 13.60s respectively.
In the men’s 400m final, Bamidele Emmanuel made it two consecutive victories within the space of a week as he sped away from the rest of the field to cross the finish line in a time of 46.48s. Orukpe Erayokan (47.07) who was left chasing Bamidele towards the home straight, settled for 2nd while Emmanuel Ojeli set a new PB of 47.74s to finish 3rd.
It wasn’t a stellar cast of athletes in the women’s 400m race but that did not deter MoC’s Ifunanya Muoghalu who set a new PB to win the final in a time of 54.50s.
On the field, the duo of Samuel Kure and Kelechi Nwanaga continued their dominance in the Javelin throw as they threw marks of 70.35m and 52.62m respectively to win their events.
In the men’s Shot Put, Victor Ugonna recorded the farthest throw, while Ujunwa Anoliefo beat the rest of the field to win the women’s category, throwing a distance of 14.13m.
Grace Anigbata (1.75m) won the women’s High Jump, while the duo of Tobechukwu Nwokocha (7.15m) and Pius Nzuba (15.85m) won the men’s Long Jump and Triple Jump respectively.
The day ended with the relays as both Team Customs (40.69s) and Team MoC (41.33s) bested the rest of the field to win Heats 1 and 2 of the men’s 4x100m relay.
In the women’s category, Team Civil Defence (44.87s) made up of the quartet of Ayemoba, Thompson- Omokwe, Igbinosun and Asemota finished three seconds ahead of Team MoC to win the women’s 4x100m race.
The 4x400m men and women’s race was won by Team Customs (3:13.33) and Team CDA (3:58.79).
The next leg of the AFN Golden League is scheduled to hold on the 26th and 27th of January, 2018 in Lagos.
