The women’s 4x100m relay final was expected to produce some fireworks and the race lived up to its billing as Nigeria’s squad of Joy Udo-Gabriel, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha ran a spectacular race to set a new African and Nigerian Record of 42.22s to finish 4th on the penultimate day of the World Championships in Oregon.
Hosts USA were simply phenomenal as they blazed to a World Lead (WL) of 41.14s to beat favourites Jamaica to the GOLD medal, with the latter clocking a Season’s Best (SB) of 41.18s for Silver. Germany claimed Bronze with an SB of 42.03s.
The previous African Record of 42.39s was set in the heats of the women’s 4x100m at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and the team comprising Beatrice Utondu, Faith Idehen, Christy Opara-Thompson and Mary Onyali would go on to win a Bronze medal in the final.
Nigeria is yet to win a medal in the women’s 4x100m at the World Championships, having previously settled for 4th place at the 1991 and 2001 editions of the competition, which is the country’s best placement in the event till date.
