Athletics / Sports

Nigeria celebrates as men’s 4x100m relay team makes it to Oregon

Twenty-four hours after Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay team was disqualified from Oregon 2022 World Athletics Championships due to Blessing Okagbare’s additional one-year drug ban, officials of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) were in joyous mood following confirmation that the country has officially qualified for two relay events, including the men’s 4x100m.

World Athletics officially confirmed Nigeria’s qualification for two, out of the five relay events for Oregon 2022, which holds from July 15 to 25 in the United States.

Apart from the Men’s 4x100m relay squad, Nigerian athletes will also compete in the 4x400m Mixed Relay event.

For the 4x100m event, Nigeria, against all odds, secured qualification from the just concluded National Trials in Benin-City, Edo State, where the quartet of Favour Ashe, Godson Brume, Alaba Akintola, and reigning World U-20 champion, Udodi Onwuzurike, stormed to a Season’s Best Time of 38.35 seconds on an opening day.

The winning time saw Nigeria leapfrog South Africa into the 16th position, which is the last qualifying spot for the World Championships.

Just before the National Trials ended in Benin City on Sunday, news filtered into the stadium that Liberia had done a better time to push Nigeria from the 16th spot. It sparked apprehension among the athletes and their coaches.

But it has turned out to be mere speculation, following the confirmation by the World Athletics of Nigeria’s 4x100m team qualification for Oregon.

Though Nigeria squeezed into the top 16th position among the qualified countries, AFN President, Tonobok Okowa, told The Guardian that the qualification is a moral booster for Team Nigeria.

“I am sure this will boost the morale of our athletes, coaches and everyone involved in this qualifying campaign,” Okowa stated.

Head coach of the AFN, former jumper, hurdler and sprinter, Seigha Porbeni, also spoke with The Guardian, yesterday, saying that more work would be done to turn the men’s 4x100m relay team into a medal-winning squad at Oregon 2022.

Porbeni described as ‘unfortunate’ the disqualification of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m team from the World Championships after it initially qualified …

Athletics / Sports

Okagbare’s additional one-year ban has badly depleted our squad, AFN laments

For the first time, Nigeria’s athletics is feeling the impact of the ban placed on U.S.-based sprinter, Blessing Okagbare, who was handed an extra one-year suspension on Monday night for doping violations.

Okagbare will now be out from athletics scene for 11 years after an extra year was added to the previous 10-year ban she received from World Athletics on February 14, 2021.

Before her 10-year ban last year, Okagbare had helped the Nigerian 4x100m relay team to qualify for the World Championships during an event held at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, where she, alongside Grace Nwokocha, Rosemary Chukwuma and Tima Godbless competed in an International Relay race attended by some other African countries.

Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, an official of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), described as ‘sad development’ the additional one-year ban placed on Okagbare.

“This additional one-year ban on Okagbare has completely depleted our squad to the World Championships,” the official said. “Between our men and the women’s teams, our hope for medals was more on the girls because for the first time in a long while, we have four of our women running sub 10.00 seconds, which is good for Nigeria. Even without Okagbare, we still had a strong relay squad, but this additional one-year ban is a big disaster for us.”

MEANWHILE, the additional one-year ban on Okagbare may not affect Nigeria’s women 4x100m relay team’s participation at the Commonwealth Games next month in Birmingham, England.

Another official of the AFN told The Guardian that the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) rules apply only to events being organised by World Athletics. I can tell you that our women’s 4x100m relay team to the Commonwealth Games is intact because it is a competition by entry and not by standard as stipulated by World Athletics.
All these Out of Competition Tests (OCT), which our athletes do before attending World Athletics events, are not applicable to the Commonwealth Games,” the official explained.

The Guardian recalls that early last year, Okagbare was handed a career-ending 10-year ban …