Ghana adds salt to Nigeria’s festering injury with 37.79 4x100m run at Tokyo World Championships

Ghana has deepened Nigeria’s relay woes by overtaking their fiercest rival on the African men’s 4x100m all-time top list.

The Ghanaian men’s 4x100m team broke the 38 second barrier for the first time, clocking a new national record of 37.79 seconds to qualify for the final at the ongoing 20th World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

This performance makes Ghana the third African country to run under 38 seconds in the event and the second fastest ever, behind South Africa, who hold the African record of 37.57seconds set while winning silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Nigeria, with the 37.94 seconds run by the quartet of Osmond Ezinwa, Olapade Adeniken, Francis Obikwelu, and Davidson Ezinwa at the Worlds in Athens, Greece in 1997, now slips to third on the African all-time list.

Stakeholders continue to question why the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, led by Tonobok Okowa, failed to secure Nigeria’s qualification for any of the five relay events at the Championships.

For the first time since the inaugural edition in 1983, Nigeria has set an unwanted record by not appearing in any relay event at the 20th edition of the Championships despite having one of the finest crops of men’s 400m runners and competitive men’s and women’s 4x100m teams.

While Nigerians at home and in Tokyo will be watching the relay events from the stands or on television, Ghana will be chasing its first ever relay medal in the men’s 4x100m while Botswana and South Africa will be vying for podium finishes in the men’s 4x400m with both favoured to go 1 and 2.