Nigeria’s Women’s 4×100 meters quartet have set a new Nigerian and African records at 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon.
In the women’s 4×100 meters relay final, Nigeria’s squad of Joy Udo-Gabriel, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha ran a spectacular race to set a new African and Nigerian Record of 42.22 seconds to finish 4th on the penultimate day of the World Championships.
Hosts USA were simply phenomenal as they blazed to a World Lead (WL) of 41.14 seconds to beat favourites Jamaica to the gold medal, with the latter clocking a Season’s Best (SB) of 41.18 seconds for Silver. Germany claimed bronze with a SB of 42.03 seconds.
The previous African Record of 42.39 seconds was set in the heats of the women’s 4×100 meters at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and the team comprising Beatrice Utondu, Faith Idehen, Christy Opara-Thompson and Mary Onyali would go on to win a bronze medal in the final.
Nigeria is yet to win a medal in the women’s 4×100 meters at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, having previously settled for 4th place at the 1991 and 2001 editions of the competition, which is the country’s best placement in the event till date.
