Godson Oghenebrume’s bid to end Nigeria’s 25 year wait for a World Athletics U-20 Championships gold medal failed Thursday on the track of Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya where the 18 year old stumbled out of the blocks and never found his ryhthm in a race he was joint favourite to win with Botswana’s Leslie Tebogo.
The Nigerian came to the championhips as the fastest man in the field (10.13s) and won both his first round and semifinal heats to set up a showdown with Tebogo who ran 10.11 seconds in the semifinal to set a new national record.
In the final, Oghenebrume failed to recover from an awful start and finished last (eighth) in 10.74 seconds while Tebogo ran 10.19 seconds to win Botswana’s first ever global 100m title.
The last time Nigeria made it to podium in the event was 25 years ago when Francis Obikwelu made his history as the second man after Trinidad and Tobago’s Ato Boldon to win the 100 and 200m titles.
In the women’s final, Praise Ofoku also came up short and failed to end a 35 year wait for a gold medal.
Like Oghenebrume, Ofoku also had a bad start but recovered to finish fourth in 11.53 secods, just two hundreth of a second outside Switzerland’s Melissa Gutschmidt who placed third (11.51s).
Jamaica’s pre-race favourite Tina Clayton ran a new 11.09 seconds personal best to win the gold with Tokyo Olympics 200m finalist, Namibia’s Beatrice Masilingi second (11.39s).
source from complete sports
