Nigeria junior athletes hit Colombia for world U-20 Championship

[FILES] Stadium track; EMORYWHEEL

We Can Do It Again, Okowa Promises

A year after re-writing Nigeria’s athletics history in Nairobi, Kenya, a team of 19 home-based athletes and six coaches departed Lagos yesterday for this year’s World U-20 Athletics Championship holding in Cali, Colombia. It will hold from August 2 to 6.

At the last edition in Nairobi, Nigeria’s U-20 track and field athletes set a new record in the country’s participation in the event, finishing third on the medals table with an unprecedented haul of four gold and three bronze medals.

The four gold medals won in Nairobi is the highest Nigeria has achieved, two more than the country has ever won in any edition of the championships.

Then, Nigeria’s 4x400m mixed relay team began the unprecedented haul with its historic, championships record-setting performance (3:19.70 CR) on the opening day of the championships, and it was followed by the gold medal by the fastest U-17 quartermiler in the world, Imaobong Nse Uko, in the women’s 400m with a new 51.55 seconds personal best. The win made Uko the fourth Nigerian woman to win the event after Fatimah Yusuf (1990), Bisi Afolabi (1994) and Folashade Abugan (2008).

Another gold medal from United States-based speed star, Udodi Onwuzurike, gave Nigeria the third gold in the men’s 200m, where he also set a new 20.21seconds personal best. The half-lap gold was Nigeria’s second since Francis Obikwelu won it in 1996 to complete his sprint double in Sydney, Australia.

President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Tonobok Okowa, who led the team to the historic feat in Nairobi last year, revealed to The Guardian yesterday that the first batch of Team Nigeria departed on Friday night for Colombia.

“We couldn’t secure