There will be no Nigerian athlete on the starting blocks when the finals of the 400m women event as well as the finals of the triple jump events takes place later this evening at the ongoing World Indoor Athletics Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.

The country’s sole representatives in the two events Ajoke Odumosu as well as Tosin Oke failed to make it to the finals. 

Incidentally both athletes are reigning Commonwealth champions in the their events and were seen as possible medal prospects for the country.

For Odumosu, she could not go beyond the semi finals after first qualifying through the back door as one of the fastest losers in her heat.
Her 54.06 secs in the semi final could only see her finish 5th in her race whereas qualification for the finals is reserved for the top two finishers.

Before the commencement of the meet in Istanbul, some analysts had predicted that  going by her performances so far this season, Odumosu had an almost insurmountable task of at least emulating the silver-medal feat achieved by Falilat Ogunkoya in 1999 in Maebashi, Japan.

It is also surprising for many to see that the name of  UK based Tosin Oke was not on the Final’s list of the triple jump event.

Some hope
Meanwhile, the duo of Gloria Asunmu and Peter Emelize have both secured berths in the semi finals of the 60m event for the women and men respectively.

With the impressive times posted in their respective heats, the duo looks good to book a final’s ticket if they can up their race in this evening semi final races.

Nigeria failed to win any medal at the last edition in Dubai and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria had said it was keen to avert a repeat.