Olympic: Team Nigeria Rower, Ukogu, through to S’final Final

Team Nigeria’s quest for the first medal at the ongoing Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil brightened yesterday with the qualification of Chierika Ukogu for the semi-finals of the Women’s Single Sculls Rowing event.

The USA-based Ukogu, 24, is the first athlete to represent Team Nigeria in the rowing event and she is very keen to go all the way to the gold medal.

Nigeria’s other entrant in the water sport (canoe slalom), Jonathan Akinyemi, failed to make it beyond the group stage.

Ukogu who is also a graduate of Stanford University, was grouped alongside two other Africans in her quarter final race. One of them, Rouba Amina from Algeria, is in the semi finals with the wave making Nigerian rower.