13th African Games Roundup: Amusan, Okezie, Relay Teams Grab 7 Gold Medals For Team Nigeria

Wednesday, March 20th, was Team Nigeria’s best day thus far at the ongoing 13th African Games with individual and team excellence in the track and field events.

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan won the gold medal in the final of the 100m women’s hurdles on Wednesday evening and one hour later anchored Nigeria’s 4x100m mixed doubles relay team to winning another gold at th University of Accra Sports Complex.

Amusan ran an impeccable time of 13.19 seconds – slightly slower than  the 12.12 seconds she did at the 2022 World Athletics Championship in Eugene, Oregon.

Amusan was handed a yellow card after a false start which she blamed on distraction from the crowd.

Chidi Anthony Okezie belted to the finish line despite a rather slow start to win the gold medal in the men’s 400m final. Okezie boisterous celebration in front of the cameras.

Esther Elo Joseph, a name Nigerians will all get used to very soon – had three ‘Personal Bests’ in three races and left no one in doubt that she is destined for the top.

All her 400m races in Ghana have all been sub 52s, and she capped it off with a Silver medal in her first major championship for Nigeria, clocking a new PB of 51.64s.

Nigeria also claimed gold in the 4×100 m Men’s relay with a time of 38.41seconds beating the defending champions Ghana who clocked 38.43 while Team Liberia came third with a time of 38.73.

Team Nigeria was made of Isreal Sunday, Itsekiri Usheoritse, Ekanem Consider and Akintola Alaba Olukunle.

Ghana had initially led the race after the first two changes of the baton but the final change to anchor leg Joseph Amoah had a hitch which led to Nigeria closing in to nick the gold medal.

Interestingly, Ghana won the gold while Team Nigeria won silver in same event when Nigeria hosted the competition in 2003.