The Athletics Federation of Nigeria has listed Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili and Omolara Ogunmakinju among the athletes to represent the country at the World Athletics Relays at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium in Nassau on May 4 and 5.
The body shockingly left out Favour Ashe, Nigeria’s fastest man so far this year, who would have helped Nigeria secure a 4x100m slot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Auburn University undergraduate has been in great form this outdoor season, breaking 10 seconds twice (9.96 and 9.99).
The 21-year-old was not among the 29 names World Athletics released on Tuesday in the final entry list by Nigeria for the event, and AFN has yet to give reasons for its decision to drop him.
Meanwhile, Godson Oghenebrume and Udodi Onwuzurike head the list of eight sprinters listed for the men’s 4x100m event.
Others are Alaba Akintola, Karlingthon Anunagba, Consider Ekanem, Seye Ogunlewe and Israel Okon Sunday.
The team will strive to be among the best 14 finishers to secure a lane in Paris for the first time since 2008, when the quartet of Onyeabor Ngwogu, Obinna Metu, Chinedu Oriala, and Uchenna Emedolu did not finish in the first heat of the event at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, China.
For the men’s 4x400m, African Games 400m champion Chidi Okezie headlines the list of eight quarter milers listed to return Nigeria to the Games since 2004, when Godday James led the team to a bronze medal finish in Athens, Greece.
Others are Sikiru Adeyemi, Dubem Amene, Ezekiel Nathaniel and his brother, Samson Nathniel, Dubem Nwanchukwu, Samuel Ogazi, who has been improving since his switch to the University of Alabama and holds the Nigerian U-18 record and Ifeanyi Ojeli.
For the women, sprint hurdlers Amusan and Favour Ofili, the Nigerian 200m record holders (indoors and out), will lead the 4x100m team, which will also comprise Rosemary Chukwuma, Justina Eyakpobeyan, Tima Godbless, Elo Blessing, and African Games double sprint medalist Olayinka Olajide.
The team is tasked with qualifying Nigeria for the Games and a place in the final, eight years after the quartet of Gloria Asumnu, Blessing Okagbare, Jennifer Madu, and Agnes Osazuwa last did in Brazil.
For the 4x400m, African Games hero Omolara Ogunmakinju, who literarily ensured Nigeria won the 4x400m mixed relay gold in Accra, Ghana, last month, topped the list of quartermilers.
Ogunmakinju is the fourth Nigerian woman to break 52 seconds (51.90) over the 400m flat this year. She will be joined by the three other women who have run sub-52 seconds in the event, led by Ella Onojuvwevwo, who ran 51.32secs recently; African Games silver medalist, Elo Joseph, who ran inside 52secs three times in Accra, culminating in her setting a 51.61 personal best; and Patience Okon George, who ran 51.97 at the African Games trials in Asaba in February.
Ogunmakinju, 30, will have the arduous task of securing Nigeria’s first appearance in the event at the Games since 2012, when she led the quartet of herself, Muizat Ajoke Odumosu, Regina George and Bukola Abogunloko to run in the final of the event in London, although they were later disqualified for lane violations after originally finishing in seventh place.
According to World Athletics, the World Relays will serve as the main Olympic qualifying event for the relays, with the first 14 countries automatically qualifying for the relay events at the
Games.
