The Blessing Okagbare-led Nigeria’s 4x100m Women’s quartet increased their rankings from top 16 to top 15, as the curtain was drawn on the 2020 Olympic Games Trials in Lagos yesterday.
On a day that heavy downpour almost pushed the final day of the Meet forward to today, Okagbare who had on Thursday won the Women’s 100m with a 10.63secs, anchored the quartet of Grace Nwokocha, Rosemary Chukwuma and Blessing Ogundiran to an improved 42.97sec.
However, the men’s sprint quartet were not that lucky. The 39.04secs clocked by Enoch Adejoke, Jerry Jakpa, Usheoritse Itsekiri and Godson Brume means they still need to fight harder to make the cut to the Games in Japan next month.
The Lagos Open Athletics Meet, scheduled to begin on Thursday at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, appears another window for the quartet to increase their ranking and make the top 16.
Both the men’s and women’s teams could not achieve the dream of improved performances in the 1600m relay events.
The men’s team, which stands at 17th, face a Herculean task as they have to run at least 3.02.40 seconds to leapfrog other teams in the race to Tokyo.
They ran 3.05.57secs yesterday.
In all, the four-day Olympics Trial was a much improvement on previous ones in the last three years both in terms of organization and quality of races, jumps and throws.
Over 20 foreign-based athletes made the trials. From Queen of the track, Blessing Okagbare to the likes of Ruth Usoro, Rilwan Alowonle, Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, Favour Ofili, Chidi Okezie, Seye Ogunlewe, Rosemary Chukwuka, Alex Al-Ameen, Dotun Ogundeji, Oyesade Olatoye and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Mike Edwards, Annette Echikunwoke and Chioma Onyekwere.
Despite running 10.63 with a tailwind of 2.7, nothing removes quality from Okagbare’s readiness to shock the world in Tokyo next month.
