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By: Abiodun Adewale
President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Tonobok Okowa, has charged Nigeria’s record-holding athletes, Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili and Temitope Adeshina to stay ahead of doping control measures as they prepare to represent the country at the 2024 Olympic Games, The PUNCH reports.
It’s been a great start to the new season for the trio, who have all set new records in their various disciplines just a couple of meets into the new season.
Adeshina was the first to make her mark this year on her second collegiate appearance for Texas Tech, with her 1.96m jump — breaking the Nigerian record of 1.93m (indoor) and 1.95m (outdoor) — set by Doreen Amata in 2016 and 2008 respectively.
World record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, Amusan set the African record in the 60m indoor hurdles twice in the space of eight days. She first ran 7.77s to win the Astana Indoor Meet in Kazakhstan January 27 and shattered Gloria Alozie’s longstanding continental mark of 7.82s set in 1999. A week later at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, she lowered the record to 7.75s to place second behind Tia Jones.
Ofili, who is making her professional debut this season, set an African women’s indoor record in 300m by dipping 35.99s also at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston last weekend.
Reacting to the trio’s achievements, Okowa praised them for raising the bar, noting that it was a sign of better things to come for Nigerian athletes in 2024.
“I know they are just starting. They are going to do a lot more this year. I just urge them to stay focused and try to do all out of competition tests and obey all that concerns doping measures as they get ready for the Olympics,” Okowa told our correspondent.
“Nigeria is blessed with abundant talents and I’m sure a lot of our athletes at home will also hit the gears as soon as our competitions hit the ground running,” Okowa added.
Before the Olympics, Amusan, Ofili and Adeshina are expected to be part of Nigeria’s contingent to the 2024 African Games which will hold from Friday March 8 to March 23 in Ghana.
