Team Nigeria takes World Athletics Championships’ relay qualification battle to Lagos Series

Nigeria 4X100 meters relay team

• Ghana, others arrive tomorrow After moving some steps close to qualifying for Budapest 2023 World Championships in Togo on Saturday, Nigeria has taken its search for the relay tickets in the men’s 4x100m, 4x400m and women’s 4X400m to the Lagos Series, which begins this week.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria’s (AFN) trip to the African Region 2 relay events in Lome, Togo, did not produce the needed results at the weekend and as things stand, only two of the teams, the women’s 4x100m and the mixed relay sides, have qualified for the championships. They got their tickets in the final of their events at the 18th World Championships held at Oregon, United States, last year.

In Togo, the women’s 4x400m team ran 3.29.09 seconds, the Men’s 4x400m team finished in 3.02.91 seconds, missing qualification time with micro seconds.

Before then, on Friday, Team Nigeria men’s 4x100m team ran 38.73 seconds to move closer to securing a place among the 16 countries that will participate in the event in Budapest. The quartet of Udodi Onwuzurike, Ushoritse Itsekiri, Alaba Akintola and Seye Ogunlewe raced home first, and moved three places up in the qualification ranking to joint 18th with the Belgian 400 relay team.

AFN President, Tonobok Okowa, told The Guardian shortly after the Togo event that the focus would shift to Yaba Technical College on July 14 for the Lagos Series event.

“We are already on our way to Nigeria to participate in the Lagos Series, where we hope to get the relay tickets. Ghana and Benin Republic have also confirmed participation in the Lagos Series on July 14 at Yaba Tech,” Okowa stated.

One of the athletes, who spoke with The Guardian, yesterday, described the Lagos Series as ‘mission