Joy, despair in Team Nigeria camp as Brume leaps to bronze, Adeniyi falls in wrestling QF
Oduduru breezes into through 200m semis, Okon-George loses in 400m
Team Nigeria got its first medal after Ese Brume delivered an impeccable performance in the women’s long jump to finish with the bronze medal at the event. The long jump star leapt to a distance of 6.97m to pick up Nigeria’s first Olympics medal in an athletics event since 2008 in Beijing. She narrowly finished behind Germany’s Malaika Mihambo and USA’s Brittney Reese.
Track and field star Divine Oduduru overcame the disappointment of his disqualification from the 100m event to qualify for the semifinals of the 200m event in style. Oduduru finished in second place in Heat 1 of the 200m event with a time of 20.36 seconds. He finished behind Jamaica’s Rasheed Dwyer (20.31 seconds), with South Africa’s Anaso Jobdwana finishing in third place with a time of 20.78 seconds to also qualify for the semifinals.
In the women’s 400m event, it ended in disappointment for the Nigerian contingent as the lone representative, Patience Okon-George, could only manage a 7th place finish in her heat with a time of 52.41 seconds. The top three runners (Shaunae Miller-Uibo, 50.50 seconds; Roxanna Gomez, 50.76 seconds; Sada Williams, 51.36 seconds) all qualify for the semifinals of the event.
In the women’s 62kg wrestling, Nigeria’s ferocious Aminat Adeniyi fell to an unexpected defeat at the hands of Ukraine’s Iryna Koliadenko in the quarterfinals despite evidently dominating the match and being in the lead. Adeniyi led the match 4-2 before Koliadenko secured a pinfall to give her the automatic victory over Adeniyi. The Nigerian wrestler still has a chance, however, of competing in the repechage for the bronze medal if Koliadenko reaches the final of the event.
Nigeria’s 4x100m women’s relay team has been hit hard by disqualification and suspension at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics following the suspension of Blessing Okagbare last week. The team to compete for a medal at the event is now comprised of Ese Brume (Long jump), Oluwatobiloba Amusan (100m hurdles), Patience Okon-George (400m) and Grace Nwokocha (200m).
