Commonwealth Games: Nigeria wins two relay medals

Two more medals came for Nigeria at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Australia through athletics as the country on Saturday picked the bronze in the 4X100m women’s race and a silver medal in the 4X400m women’s event.

The quartet of Joy Udo-Gabriel, Blessing Okagbare, Tobi Amusan and Rose Chukwuma ran a time of 42.75s to finish behind England and Jamaica in the 4x100m.

The English team proved too strong for the rest of the field, with Asha Philip, Dina Asher-Smith, Bianca Williams and Lorraine Ugen running a dominant race to take gold in a National Record (NR) of 42.46s.

It was a sad tale for Nigeria in the men’s 4x100m as the team was disqualified after dropping the baton during the exchange, and the quartet of Ogho-Oghene Egwero, Usheoritse Itsekiri, Emmanuel Arowolo and Seye Ogunlewe would be left to rue the missed opportunity.

It was better for Nigeria in the 4X400m Women’s event where the country retained her silver medal from four years ago in Glasgow.

Patience Okon-George who won silver with the Glasgow team, gave it her all as the most experienced member of the Gold Coast quartet, and established the lead for Nigeria to hand over the baton to Glory Nathaniel, with Praise Idamadudu and Yinka Ajayi completing the job and bringing home the baton in 3:25.29 in 2nd place, as Jamaica retained the title with a time of 3:24.00.

The medal will definitely provide some sort of consolation for Okon-George who was disqualified in the 400m, and Ajayi and Nathaniel who finished outside the medal zone in their respective events.

There was nothing to cheer in the Women’s High Jump event as Doreen Amata finished 10th having failed to clear 1.84m