The African Record in the women’s 4x100m event has finally been broken after three decades.

The record was broken by the quartet of Joy Udo-Gabriel, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha who ran the race of their lives early Sunday morning in the final of the women’s 4x100m event at the ongoing World Championship in Oregon.  

They posted a time of 42.22s to break the long-standing 42.39s National/African Record set by their compatriots, Christy Opara-Thompson, Faith Idehen, Beatrice Utondu and Mary Onyali, at the Barcelona 92 Olympics where Nigeria ended with a bronze medal.

Udo-Gabriel, whose inclusion in the team was questioned by some critics, shut her critics up for the umpteenth time with a well-executed first leg race before handing over to Ofili who sustained the momentum.

Then it was the turn of Chukwuma for the third leg and she did well before handing over to Nwokocha who finished off brilliantly.

Unfortunately, despite their record-breaking race, the Nigerian ladies still did not make it to the podium as they finished fourth behind the United States who won with a fast time of 41.14s.

Jamaica and Germany finished second and third respectively.

Sunday was the first time in 11 years that the Nigeria women’s relay team participated in the final of the World Championships.

Lucky entry

Incidentally, Nigeria had originally lost out on competing in the women’s relay events in Oregon before they literally sneaked in.

New doping infractions established against Blessing Okagbare  knocked Nigeria off the last qualification spot they were occupying on the eve of the closure for qualifying entries for Oregon.

Okagbare and three others ran a time of 42.97s at the Yabatech Sports Complex, Lagos and that had kept them in the last qualification spot up until the unfortunate development.

However, one of the sixteen teams that had qualified ahead of Nigeria, France, eventually pulled out to make a way for Nigeria to not just come on board but to set a new African record.

Even though the medal did not come in Oregon, the relatively young Nigerian women’s relay team would be hoping to get it right at the Commonwealth Games starting this week in Birmingham and subsequent global meets; especially at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, Mohammed Sanusi, has congratulated Super Falcons’ forward Rasheedat Ajibade for emerging joint top-scorer of the just-concluded Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco.

While qualifying for next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the Falcons failed to retain the title they won in Ghana in 2019 to claim their 10th WAFCON title.

Their misery was compounded after losing to Zambia in their bid to win a consolatory bronze medal without key players such as Ajibade, Halimatu Ayinde and captain Onome Ebi.

Despite missing out on the third-place defeat against Zambia after being shown a straight red card in the semi-final clash against Morocco, the Atletico Madrid star ended the 12th edition of WAFCON with three goals, the same number of goals as Moroccan captain Ghizlane Chebbak and South Africa’s Hilda Magaia.

Sanusi however congratulated Ajibade following her feat in Morocco.

“We rejoice with Rahseedat Ajibade for her emergence as joint top-scorer of the tournament and we implore her to continue to show even more prolificity and commitment in the jerseys of club and country,” Sanusi said.

“Her three goals surely helped the Super Falcons to win a World Cup ticket. Our team would certainly have been in the Final if not for the incident that led to her expulsion in the semi-final match against the host nation.

The world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, has congratulated Nigerian athletic star, Tobi Amusan, on her performance in the ongoing World Athletic championship.

Amusan became the first Nigerian athlete to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championship when she stormed to victory in the women’s 100m hurdles in Oregon on Sunday within 12.06 seconds.

Amusan had earlier broken the world record in the semi-finals, where she clocked 12.12sec.

Quoting a tweet confirming Tobi’s win at the semis by the World Athletics official page, Bolt lauded the champion.

“Congrats,” he tweeted with emoticons of the Nigerian flag and applauses.

After her performance in the finals, the Jamaican athlete also wrote, “Superb #Tobi.”

Nigeria’s U-19 team to the 2022 ITTF Africa Youth Championships secured their slot at the World Youth Championships after beating Egypt 3-1 in the final of the team event on Saturday July 23.

The win helped Nigeria to halt the dominance of Egypt in the team events of the 2022 ITTF Africa Youth Championships as Taiwo Mati became the hero for Nigeria at the expense of the North African.

The continental youth championships is making a return since the last edition held in Accra, Ghana in 2019 following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic with Tunis hosting some of the best youngsters in Africa.

According to the Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), the tournament serves as qualifiers for the World Youth Championships taking place later in the year in the same venue in Tunisia.

On the final day of the team event, Egypt had dominated the girls’ U-19 and U-15 while the also avenged their group stage 3-1 loss to Nigeria as they were at their best against the trio of Matthew Kuti, Mustapha Mustapha and Musa Mustapha in the boys’ U-15 final.

In the boys’ U-15 final, Egyptian trio of Gaber Yassin, Abdelaal Anas and Elsayed Abdelmalk played their best game against the Nigerian youngsters as spirited effort by Kuti was thwarted by Yassin in the fourth game for the Egyptian side to claim a 3-1 win.

With three gold medals already in their kitty on the final day of the team event, Nigerian trio of Taiwo Mati, Boboye Samuel and Muiz Adegoke ensured that the Egyptian made a clean sweep with a convincing 3-1 win over the Egyptian.

It was Mati that started the campaign on a winning note against Egypt’s GAMAL Marwan with a 3-1 (11-1, 10-12, 11-8, 12-10) win while Boboye failed in his quest to increase the tally for Nigeria when he fell 2-3 (5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-13) to AZZAM Mohamed.

Adegoke restored Nigeria’s lead with a 3-1 (8-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-8) win over ELSHAWA Ziad.

The star of the Nigerian team Mati completed the 3-1 rout for the West African side with a 3-1 (5-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9) win to halter Egypt’s medal sweep in the team event.

The singles event of the tournament served off on Sunday July 24 with Mati listed as top seed in the boys’ U-19 and have been given a bye to the next round, the Nigerian sensation is expected to face Kenya’s Shah Heeray in the second round of the singles on Monday July 25.

Current Africa women champion, 14-year-old Hana Goda will be aiming to dominate the junior level after ruling the senior cadre a few weeks ago in Lagos.

The tournament ends on July 27 with Egypt, Nigeria and Tunisia already securing their places at the 2022 World Youth Championships.

Tobi Amusan became the first Nigerian athlete to win a World Athletics Championship gold as she stormed to victory in the women’s 100m hurdles in Oregon on Sunday.

Amusan, who had obliterated the world record in an astonishing semi-final where she clocked 12.12sec, powered over the line at Hayward Field in 12.06sec.

Her winning time will not be recognised as a world record, however, due to a strong following win of 2.5 metres per second.

Jamaica’s Britany Anderson took silver in 12.23sec, while Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico claimed bronze in 12.23.

Amusan had produced a jaw-dropping world record in the semi-finals, smashing the previous best mark of 12.20secs held by Keni Harrison of the United States in 2016.

“Honestly, I believe in my abilities but I was not expecting a world record at these championships,” Amusan said after her final victory. “The goal is always just to execute well and get the win. So the world record is a bonus. I knew I had it in me but I could not believe it when I saw it on the screen after the semis.

“Before the final, I just tried to stay calm and to do my best. I took a deep breath knowing that I have some goal to accomplish and it worked pretty good. I knew it was very fast but not this fast.”

Harrison had been left in Amusan’s slipstream in the semi, and was again shown a clean pair of heels by the Nigerian in the final.

Amusan got off to a scorching start and was smoothly into her stride after the first hurdle, building a clear lead and then pulling away ahead of Anderson and the fast-closing Camacho-Quinn.