Team Nigeria banks on athletics to retain second position

Brume and Amusan

Team Nigeria is currently in the second position behind runaway leaders, Egypt, but the country is being trailed by Algeria and South Africa, who are third and fourth respectively on the medals table.

Nigeria is banking on athletics events to shore up its gold haul, which determines where every country finishes.

The athletics event will begin on Monday and Team Nigeria will be looking up to United States-based reigning African Games 100m hurdles champion, Tobi Amusan, and Long jump queen, Ese Brume, to win their respective events to increase the nation’s hope of maintaining the second position on the medals table.

As things stand now, Egypt, with over 50 gold medals, has secured the top spot on the medals table going by the rate the Pharaohs are winning events at competition venues in Ghana.

Nigeria has topped the track and field medals table in 11 of the 12 editions of the African Games held so far, with the 1995 Games in Harare, Zimbabwe the best in terms of the
number of gold medals won (15), while the athletics contingent hauled a record 38 medals four years earlier in Cairo, Egypt with 13 gold, 16 silver and nine bronze medals.

From Monday, all eyes will be on Amusan, who is seeking a hat-trick of 100m hurdles gold as well as to improve on the 12.68 seconds Games’ record she set in 2019 at Rabat, Morocco.

She made her debut in 2015 and extended Nigeria’s 100 percent record in the event. She successfully defended her title in 2019 and is heavily favoured tobecome the second Nigerian woman to win three straight titles in the same event after shot putter, Vivian Chukwuemeka.

Brume won her first African Games’ gold in the long jump in Rabat, Morocco 2019 after placing fourth in her debut in 2015.

Now, the