Team Nigeria made a strong statement on day 1 of the African Under 20 and 18 Championships currently taking place at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, winning three medals: Two Golds and one Bronze.
The team, who had arrived on Monday, won its first Gold medal of the day and the competition when Best Erhire jumped a new Personal Best (PB) of 2.08m to win the under 18 categories of the men’s High Jump event.
Erhire has continued to improve and having placed fourth at the 2018 African Youth Games, jumped a PB of 2.05 four months ago to win Bronze at the National Sports Festival in Abuja before producing his best performance so far to win Gold today.
The other two medals came in the two categories of the Triple Jump event as Enitan Onaara Obamuwagun also jumped a new PB of 12.78m to win the U20 category while Grace Oshiokpu jumped a mark of 11.87m to win the Bronze medal of the U18 category.
The athletes also performed well in their various heats on the track as Favour Ofili won her heat easily with a Season Best (SB) of 53.75s in the 400m Girls U18 category while Victor Akhalu with a time of 47.96s won his heat of the 400m Boys U18 category. Both athletes have progressed to the next round.
Enoch Adegoke and Rosemary Chukwuma also won their respective categories in the 100m men’s and women’s heats earlier in the day to progress to the semis which would happen on Wednesday.
Adegoke on his part won his 100m heat with a time of 10.46s while Chukwuma won hers with an SB of 11.66s. Praise Ofoku and Anita Taviore also secured wins in their respective heats of the Girls’100m events to progress to the semis.
(Text and Photo credits: Temitope Idowu for AthleticsAfrica)
