Nigeria,
on Sunday, regained the top spot of Africa athletics by winning the
18th African Athletics Championship which was held in Port Novo. Vivian
Chukwuemeka’s dominant display in the women’s shot put final and the
fantastic 4x400m run by the Nigeria’s men and women’s relay teams
headlined the last day of competition and the country’s successful
return to the summit of African athletics.
Chukwuemeka, the 2002
Commonwealth Games queen set a new African, national and championship
record of 18.86m to lead a Nigeria top three sweep of the medals at
stake in the event. Chinwe Okoro who won Nigeria’s first gold medal at
this championship settled for silver (16.21m) while Omotayo Talabi
picked the gold with a put of 15.63m.
The women’s 1600 relay
set the tone for an intriguing finish with a new championships record of
3:28.77 to beat Botswana led by individual 400m winner and reigning
world champion, Amantle Montsho. This victory tied Nigeria and Kenya on
nine gold medals each with the men’s 4x400m event the decider for
Nigeria who needed to win the gold to be crowned African champions.
The quartet of Salihu
Issah,Amaechi Morton,Abiola Onakoya and anchor-leg runner, Saul Weigopwa
ran superbly and deservedly picked the gold with a new 3:02.39 seconds
record to put Nigeria on top of the medals table 12 years after it last
enjoyed that privilege in Dakar, Senegal.
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