Consolidating on the achievements of teammates Abejoye Oyeniyi and Miracle Thompson on Day 1 of Athletics at the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival (NSF), the trio of Temitope Adeshina, Joy Udo-Gabriel and Jerry Jakpa finished on the podium on Day 2 as they claimed medals both on the Track as well as the Field.
Temitope Adeshina, who was one of the flagbearers of Lagos State during the Opening Ceremony of the ongoing NSF, was the best athlete in the women’s High Jump as she cleared a height of 1.80m to equal her Personal Best (PB) from 2019 set at the National Championships in Kaduna, to strike GOLD for Lagos State in her event.
This is two wins in two competitions for Adeshina in 2021, after she opened her season at the BetKing/3rd MoC Grand Prix two weeks ago where she won the women’s High Jump with a then Season’s Best (SB) of 1.70m.
Moving to the track, MoC’s Udo-Gabriel, who competed in the women’s 100m final on Saturday, stormed to a 2nd place finish in 11.44s. The 2018 Commonwealth Games 4x100m Bronze Medallist went toe-to-toe with Grace Nwokocha, staying with her right into the line, with the latter slightly edging her by 0.02s. This Silver-medal position is one place up for Udo-Gabriel who won Bronze at her first outing at the NSF in 2018.
Fellow MoC sprinter Jakpa also went one place up in the men’s 100m final after narrowly missing a podium placement at the 2018 NSF in Abuja. This time around however, Jakpa was not going to be denied as he finally got his moment, winning a Bronze medal in a Season’s Best (SB) of 10.33s, just 0.01s shy of his PB set at the 2018 NSF. Jakpa will be gunning for GOLD in the men’s 200m which commences on Sunday!
