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Abiodun Adewale
Nigeria’s quest for a medal at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, continues on Wednesday (today) with duo Favour Ofili and Alaba Akintola competing in the women and men’s 200m respectively, The PUNCH reports.
The country is yet to win a medal at the five-day old championships and the sprint event offers a little hope, especially for Ofili, who has been hitting her strides gradually this season.
Silver medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Ofili is competing in her first World Championships for Nigeria.
The 20-year-old will be running in Lane 5 of the first heats and her season’s best of 22.11secs this season is the fastest in that category as well as the fifth best in the women’s 200m. The sprinters ahead of her are Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, new women’s 100m champion and USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabrielle Thomas and Julien Alfred.
The first three of each of the six heats, as well as the six other fastest times, will make it into the semi-finals.
For Akintola, he will run on lane six in the seventh heat, just beside USA’s Kenneth Bednarek. His season’s best of 20.43secs is also the fifth best time in the eight-man line-up as he seeks qualification into the semis.
Some other notable names in the other heats are Botswana’s Lesile Tebogo, USA’s Noah Lyles, Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh and Canada’s Andre De Grasse.
Akintola was part of the men’s 4x100m relay quartet along with Udodi Onwuzurike, Raymond Ekevwo and Favour Ashe that won bronze for Nigeria at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
