Team Nigeria’s contingent to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics swelled to 9 as more athletes qualified to represent Nigeria at the mundial scheduled to hold in Tokyo, Japan between the 23rd of July and 8th of August 2021.
Nigerian sprinter, Favour Ofili wrapped up her place at the Tokyo Olympics in the Women’s 200m event after she recorded a personal best time of 22.75 seconds to emerge victorious from her final heat at the SEC Indoor Championships.
At the same time, she shattered the Nigerian Indoor national record of 23.00 seconds set by Regina George in the same SEC Championship in 2013.
Favour’s time was also the third fastest in the history of her school. She also competed as her team finished 4th in the women’s 4×400m relay. She joins veteran Nigerian athlete, Blessing Okagbare in having qualified for the women’s 200m event at the Tokyo Olympics.
In another recent qualification, in-form long jump star, Ruth Usoro qualified for both the women’s long jump and the triple jump events at the Tokyo Olympics following her performances at the Big 12 Championship in both events.
Ruth jumped a distance of 14.36m in the triple jumped event to be crowned as the winner of the event at the Big 12 Championship after she had qualified for the women’s long jump event following a jump of 6.82m at the same championship.
Her jump was the second biggest in the world in 2021, only behind Larissa Iapichino’s jump of 6.91m at the Palaindoor Ancona event in Italy. She joins Ese Brume in having qualified for the women’s long jump event at the Olympics.
Other Nigerian athletes to have secured qualification for the Tokyo Olympics include; Divine Oduduru, Raymond Ekevwo and Usheoritse Itsekiri, who have all qualified for the men’s 100m event after meeting the required qualifying standard time of 10.05 seconds at various events.
Oduduru also qualified for the 200m event after meeting the required qualifying standard time of 20.24 seconds, and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi qualified for the shot put event after reaching the required distance of 21.10m with his throw in the qualifying rounds.
From the women’s category, Nigerian women’s sprint legend, Blessing Okagbare qualified for both the women’s 100 and 200 meter events after meeting the required qualifying standard time of 11.15 seconds and 22.80 seconds respectively at qualification meets.
Also, hurdler Tobi Amusan secured her place at the women’s 100m hurdles event of the Tokyo Olympics as she met the qualifying standard time of 12.84 seconds in her qualification meets.
Ese Brume picked up her own ticket to the women’s long jump event after she was able to reach the qualifying standard distance of 6.82m in her qualifying events. Nigeria now has 9 representatives competing for medals in 8 categories at the Olympics.
Qualification for the Olympic Games is still ongoing, and can be achieved by either of two ways; meeting the qualifying standard time or distance for each event, or by the athlete’s World Athletics ranking.
Qualification for the Olympics closes on the 29th of June 2021, about three weeks before the commencement of the competition proper.
Sport betting fans interested in betting on games at the Olympics should be ready to take advantage of the huge odds that will be available in coming weeks on NetBet Nigeria.