Nigeria begins battle for first men’s 4x400m African Athletics Championships gold in 12 years
After failing to rewrite Nigeria’s 24 year old winless record at the African Games by finishing third in the final i March in Accra, Ghana, Nigeria men’s 4x400m relay team has another chance to take the first huge step towards rewriting another unwanted record in the event at the African Championships.
Nigeria has not been crowned African champion in the event since 2012 when the quartet of Saul Weigopwa, Amaechi Morton, Abiola Onakoya and Isah Salihu ran 3:02.39 in Port Novo, Republic of Benin to win the gold.
The team, expected to be led by reigning African Games champion in the 400m, Chidi Okezie and 2024 NCAA silver medal winner also in the full lap race, Samuel Ogazi,has been given the task to return Nigeria to the podium 12 years after Nigeria’s national anthem was last played in the event.
Both Okezie and Ogazi who finished third in the 400m event in the individual 400m event at the Championships will have to re-enact their pre-championships’ sub 45 seconds form which can translate to sub 44 seconds splits to lead the team to the promised land.
Okezie ran splits inside 45 seconds in three races at the World Relays in May in the Bahamas and will be relied on to deliver yet again with the in-form Ogazi.
At the African Games in Accra in March, the team could only finish third behind a Zambian team that ran a new 2:59.12 Games record and a Botswana team (2:59.32) that went to the World Relays barely two months later to become world champions (2:59.11).
The last Nigeria won the gold at the African Games was in 1999 when policeman Sunday Olanrewaju Bada (now late) anchored a quartet that included Tafida Gadzama (now AFN first Vice President), Jude Monye and Clement Chukwu to a 3:01.20 finish.
