Team Nigeria men and women’s 4x400m relay teams moved a step closer to qualifying for next month’s World Athletics Championships after their impressive displays at the CAA Region II Senior Athletics Championships which ended Saturday in Lome, Togo.
The men’s quartet of Dubem Nwachukwu, Nathaniel Ezekiel, Ogazi Samuel and Chidi Okezie ran an impressive 3:02.91 to move up to 18th in the qualification ranking.
The time is a season’s best for the Nigerians and the fastest a Nigerian men’s 4x400m team has run since July 2012 when the quartet of Saul Weigopwa, Amaechi Morton, Abiola Onakoya and Salihu Isah ran 3:02.39 to win the gold medal at the African Championships in Athletics held at the Stade Charles de Gaulle in Porto Novo, Benin Republic.
The Nigerians will need to run more races before the end of July deadline as more countries are also bidding to be among the 16 teams that will compete for podium places at the Championships.
While the Nigerian 1600 relay team was busy chasing qualification, the duo of Barbados and the Dominican Republic also moved significantly up the ladder the same day.
Barbados team ran 3:02.12 in San Salvador to move up to 15th in the ranking, Dominican Republic occupy the last and final qualifying slot after the team stormed to a 3:02.19 finish also in San Salvador on Saturday.
According to SportsNow, Team Nigeria will now need to run faster than the 3:02.19 Dominican Republic ran, as of today, to stand a chance of qualifying.
For the women’s, the 4x400m quartet of Imaobong Nse Uko, Patience Okon-George, Queen Osunbor and Omolara Ogunmakinju ran 3:29.09 to move just outside the last team in the qualification spot.
The time is also not just the team’s season’s best but also the fastest ran by a Nigerian women’s 4x400m relay team since the quartet of Patience Okon
George, Glory Onome Nathaniel, Praise Idamadudu and Yinka Ajayi ran 3:25.29 to place second at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia.
Team Nigeria is now 17th in the ranking and will need to run faster than the 3:28.79 Botswana ran last month at the Kenyan championships which has now placed them 16th
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