All African Games: Nigerian Athletes Break African Record In Thrilling Race
Taiwo Ayandeyi
On Tuesday night in Accra, Ghana at the ongoing All African Games (AAG), the Nigerian mixed 4x400m relay team of Emmanuel Ojeli, Patience Okon-George, Sikiru Adeyemi and Omolara Ogunmakinju stormed to GOLD in sensational style with Omolara stealing the spotlight.
Ojeli set the race going for Nigeria and set the team up for a brilliant start, handing over the baton slightly in 2nd place behind Botswana to Patience Okon-George, who created a reasonable lead just 30 metres into her race; pushing Botswana to second place on the 2nd lap.
However, Sikiru Adeyemi found himself napping on the 3rd lap of the race as Botswana's Bayapo Ndori wasted no time regaining the lead and creating a distance of over 20 metres between himself and Adeyemi in the process.
All hopes looked lost for Nigeria after the pass of the baton for the last lap but Ogunmakinju put on a show, running what could be aptly described as the race of her life as she steadily and speedily closed the 20-metre deficit created in the 3rd lap with the just 30m to the finish line to bring the GOLD medal home in a time of 3:13.26!
With that thrilling performance, Nigeria shattered the African Record set by the Nigerian team that competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
