On the 4th day of African U18/U-20 Championships in Ndola, Zambia, the Nigerian trio of Tima Godbless, Samuel Ogazi and Faith Okwose completed sprint doubles in their events.
After her win over 100m yesterday, Godbless who was Nigeria’s poster girl at the Championships, doubled back to win the 200m title in a time of 23.35s, running into a stiff 2.4m/s headwind. She beat the field by more than a second as Sierra Leonian Sisay Georhiana came home 2nd in 24.30s while Adetutu Aladeloye made it a 1-3 finish for Nigeria in 24.33s for Bronze.
In similar fashion, Faith Okwose having taken GOLD in the 100m, won the women’s 200m in the U-18 category with a time of 23.31s (-0.2) ahead of Chane Vermeulen in 23.49s for South Africa. Justina Tiana Eyakpobeyan made it another Nigerian 1-3 finish, placing 3rd in 23.60s.
Samuel Ogazi, one of the breakout stars of the Championships on the other hand completed the 200/400m double. The 16-year-old whose 400m Personal Best (PB) going to Zambia was 47.79s, took a sizeable chunk off it, storming to GOLD in 46.01s, the 2nd fastest time ever run by a Nigerian U-18. He then went on to win the 200m in a new PB of 20.93s (-0.4m/s), with his teammate Sunday Okon Israel coming in for Bronze in 21.36s.
In the U-20 category, Musbau Adebisi won a Silver medal, clocking a time of 20.97s (-3.4m/s) behind South Africa’s Armand van der Walt who won in 20.82s.
Grace Oshiokpu after her win in the Triple Jump, produced a leap of 5.85m (0.2) to win the women’s Long Jump while the country further amassed three GOLD medals in the relays – the U-20 men’s 4x100m, U-18 men’s medley relay and U-18 women’s medley, bringing the nation medal tally to 32 (14 Gold, 10 Silver and 8 Bronze).
