Asaba 2018: Nigeria Wins Fifth Gold Medal

Nigeria’s women 4x100m relay team on Friday won the country’s fifth gold medal at the ongoing 2018 African Senior Athletics Championships in Asaba.

The News Agency Nigeria reports that the team of Blessing Okagbare, Joy Udo-Gabriel, Tobi Amusan and Rosemary Chukwuma won the race in 43.77 seconds.

Cote d’Ivoire finished in second place after a time of 44.40 seconds, while Kenya settled for the bronze medal of the event.

Reacting to Nigeria’s victory, Okagbare said she felt so great to be part of the winning team for the country.

“Winning is always a great feeling, regardless of everything. It’s an amazing feeling and we have so much to be grateful to God for.

“Relay is a combined effort and it is a great thing that we finished well and won for the country,’’ she said.

Also speaking, Chukwu said it was a great moment for her to have run the last leg of the race, especially as she was a bit frightened running alongside the Ivorian team.

“I am very happy we won. I was a bit frightened initially, but I managed to pull myself together. It’s a great feeling for me that we got the gold,’’ the winner of both the 100m and 200m events at the 2018 African Youth Games (AYG) in Algeria said.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian team in the male version of the 4x100m race won the silver medal after finishing second behind the South African team in a time of 38.74secs.

South Africa, led by Akani Simbine who ran the last leg, won in 38.25secs, while Kenya finished third in 38.92secs.

NAN reports that Nigeria’s Ese Brume had won the gold medal in the long jump event earlier in the day with a jump of 6.83m.

Also, Chioma Onyekwere won the gold medal in the women’s dicuss throw with a throw of 58.09m.

NAN reports that Nigeria has so far won five gold, two silver and three bronze medals at the championships which end on Sunda