IAAF World Indoor Championships: Mixed fortunes for Nigeria’s relay teams

The men were knocked out while the women qualified.

It was a case of mixed fortunes for the Nigeria 4x400m relay teams at the ongoing IAAF World Indoor Championships on Saturday as the men’s team failed to make the final while the women team pulled through with a new personal best time of 3:29:67secs.

The Nigeria’s men team spearheaded by the duo of Noah Akwu and Tobi Ogunmola did try their best as they set a new Africa Indoor record of 3:07:95secs; but it was not enough to carry them into Sunday’s final.

Running in the Heat 2 on Saturday, the Nigerian men finished behind Great Britain and Russia who posted a time of 3:06:09secs and 3:06:63secs respectively.

In the earlier Heat 1, it was the favourites Team USA that blazed the trail with a time of 3:04:36 seconds while Jamaica came behind in a time of 3:06:12 secs.

The Nigerian women qualified for the final of the 4x400m event, as one of the fastest times outside the automatic top two finishers in the two heat races conducted. They would, however, need an extra push in Sunday’s final as among their opponents are the American ladies who set a new world leading time of 3:29:06 secs, and Jamaica, whose ladies set a National Indoor Records of 3:29:43 secs.

Also on Saturday, Nigeria’s Gloria Asunmu progressed in the 60m event after running a season’s best time of 7:19secs to book her place in the semi-finals. While on Friday, new Nigerian Shot put thrower, Stephen Morzia, was unable to make it out of the preliminary stage of the event.

The ongoing World Indoor Athletics Championships in Sopot, Poland, will end on Sunday and Nigeria is keen not to make it a third straight outing without any medal at the global event.