Durban 2016: How Team Nigeria Fared in Africa Senior Athletics Championship

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

Team Nigeria on Sunday finished third on the log of the 2016 CAA Africa Senior Athletics Championships in Durban, South Africa.

The team finished behind South Africa and Kenya with a total of 16 medals made up of four gold, five silver and seven bronze medals. The competition began on June 22 and ended on Sunday.

Nigeria were runners-up to South Africa in the 2014 edition of the competition when they finished with 24 medals – eight gold, nine silver and seven bronze.

The team, which had over 27 athletes at the championships, were third on the log with four gold, two silver and five bronze when events closed on Saturday and could not win any gold medal on Sunday. Kenya added four gold medals to the four they had on Saturday to cement their second place-finish while Nigeria could only win three silvers and two bronze on Sunday.

Team Nigeria’s Doreen Amata won the first silver in the women’s high jump after clearing a height of 1.82m behind Seychelles’ Labiche Lissa, who cleared 1.85m. The second silver medal came in the 4x400m women’s relay. The quartet of Omolara Omotosho, Regina George, Patience George and Yinka Ajayi, ran 03:29.94secs to win silver behind the South African team, which won gold in 03:28.49secs.

In the women’s shot put, the duo Nnwanneka Okwelogu and Onyekwere Chioma, won silver and bronze with their throws of 17.07m and 15.71m respectively. Cameroon’s Dongmo Sally won gold with a distance of 17.64m.

Jameson Tameka won Nigeria’s second bronze medal in the women’s 400m hurdles. She ran 57.17secs to finish behind South Africa’s Nel Winda and Kenya’s Jelegat Maureen.

Divine Oduduru who was expected to participate in the men’s 200m final on Sunday did not start after he was reported to have copped and injury after Saturday’s semifinals.

CREDIT: PunchNG