Nigeria women’s 4x100m relay team out of second straight Olympic final
For the second straight Olympics, Nigeria will not be presenting a team in the final of the women’s 4x100m after the quartet of Justina Tiana Eyakpobeyan, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Tima Godbless neither picked any of the three automatic tickets on offer nor run fast enough to be considered among the fastest non automatic qualifiers even with the disqualification of Cote d’Ivoire and Belgium.
The Nigerians ran 42.70, a personal season’s best to place sixth in their semifinal heat and nighth in the overall classification.
This will be the first time Nigeria will not make two consecutive finals in the event since 1992 when the country returned to the event after a 24 year absence to win a bronze medal.
Nigeria made consecutive finals in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 when they won a silver medal, 2012 and 2016.
The country was missing three years ago in Tokyo and will not be there again this time around.
Nigeria first participated in the event in 1968 when the quartet of Olajumoke Bodunrin, the 1965 African Games 100m champion, Janet Omorogbe, Mairo Jinadu and Oyeronke Akindele.
