by Deji Ogeyingbo
Deji Ogeyingbo covered the 2022 Nigerian Athletics Championships for RunBlogRun. It was June 25-27, and it was during our complete upgrade of the blog, RunBlogRun. We posted this piece on FB #RunBlogRun on June 25, and are posting it now on the blog, RunBlogRun.
Chukwuebuka Enekwechi defends his men’s Shot Put title at the Nigerian Championships as Nigeria’s men’s 4x100m team qualifies for the World Championships, story, and photos by Deji Ogeyingbo
Reigning African Champion in the men’s Shot Put Chukwuebuka Enekwechi was a class apart from the rest of the field as he defended his national title to win in a season’s best of 21.25m.
Enekwechi has laid siege on the event in Nigeria and Africa as would have taken a disaster of monumental proportion for him to relinquish his crown. He put together a good series of throws, starting with an opening mark of 20.74m.
The 2019 World Championships finalist left his best for the last reaching a new SB of 21.25m for the win.
Elsewhere, Nigeria’s men’s 4x100m were seeking qualification for the World Championships with the team sitting in seventeenth, one spot outside the World Rankings top list. Having made the final and with Ghana and Benin Republic part of the lineup, the quartet of Favour Ashe (University of Tennessee), Godson Brume (Louisiana State University), Alaba Akintola (Middle Tennessee), and Udodi Onwuzurike (Stanford University), the team stormed to victory in a season’s best of 38.33s.
The time was just about enough to knock off South Africa’s U20 team who occupied the sixteenth place. The team will now hope no other country below them runs faster that their time ahead of the qualification deadline of June 29th.
Their female counterparts continued from where they left off at the African Championships in which they won Gold. This time around, they added the duo of Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha to the team, both of who are finalists at the NCAA Division one championships finals a few weeks back.
They teamed up with Tobi Amusan and Tima Godbless to cruise to victory in a season’s best of 43.34s.
In the women’s triple jump final, Texas Tech junior, Ruth Usoro made light work of the rest of the field as she won with a best jump of 14.10m.
The events continue on Day 2 with the men’s and women’s 100m final potentially the highlights of what promises to be a big day.
