Nigeria’s ‘Queen of the Track’ Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor lived up to her ratings as she led the quartet that also had Joy Gabriel-Udoh, Rosemary Chukwuma and Oluwatobiloba Amusan to win the 4×100 metres relay at the 21st African Athletics Championships in Asaba.
The gold medal-winning Nigerian side confined Cote d’Ivoire to the second position. The race is to be Okagbare’s only one so far in the championships having pulled out of the 100 and 200 metres events on the ground of injury.
She ran the second leg and the perfect exchange of baton contributed immensely to the success of the team and the qualification to represent Africa at the forth coming World Cup in Prague next month.
However, the 43.77 secs returned by Nigerian quartet was far from their personal best which Amusan promised to improve on in the subsequent races.
Côte d Ivoire led by Lou Gonezie Marie TA returned the time of 44.40 while Kenya won bronze with the time of 45.58 secs. South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Zambia followed in that order.
The men’s race, South Africa beat Nigeria to the gold medal with a time of 38.25secs while Nigeria team returned 38.74 and Côte d Ivoire won the bronze in 38.92 secs. Zimbabwe, Kenya, Gambia, Cameroon and Burkina Faso all followed in that order.