President, Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Tonobok Okowa, is confident that Nigeria will secure the complete relays Olympic tickets.
Buoyed by the country’s sterling outing at the World Relays in the Bahamas, Okowa says there are enough competitions for the women’s 4x400m relay team to also punch their ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics and complete the country’s five relay teams for the Games,
The team did not start in their race on Saturday in the Bahamas, where Nigeria’s four other relay quartets qualified for the Olympics.
Their absence was hinged on visa issues for some of the athletes, including Patience Okon-George, while 2023 African Games sensational anchor leg Omolara Ogunmakinju was sidelined by injury.
Despite the no-show, Okowa insists the team has enough time to qualify before the window lapses on June 30.
“Our plan was to qualify for all the relays in the Bahamas but I think four over five is still a pass mark. That is not to say we won’t complete it,” Okowa said.
“We have other competitions in the window, including the Senior Africa Athletics Championships in Cameroon, the Region II in Ghana and the National Trials. These are opportunities for us to qualify those who haven’t in the individual and relays.”
In other news, the remaining two places for Paris in each discipline, including the women’s 4x400m will be awarded based on top lists during the qualification period (December 31, 2022 to June 30, 2024) and Nigeria are currently second based on the top lists after those who have automatic qualification and will now hope to hang on to one of the two spots left within the Olympic qualification period.
On day 1 of the World Relays on Saturday, 30-year-old Chidi Okezie ran two inspiring races to power the mixed 4x400m and the men’s 4x400m teams to Paris, while the men and women’s 4x100m teams needed the repechage heats on day 2 to qualify after missing out on the first two automatic spots on Saturday.
