Nigeria may lose 4x100m World Championship relay spot to Liberia

• Brume wins long jump gold at National Trials

United States-based Nigeria’s women long jumper, Ese Brume, yesterday, retained her position as one of the nation’s top stars to watch at this year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon, U.S. and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, by winning the gold medal at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria’s (AFN) national trials in Benin.

Brume, who has won at least a medal for Nigeria in every event she has featured in since she broke into limelight in 2013, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, jumped 6.89 metres at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin, yesterday, to claim the top spot.

Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay team grabbed a gold medal in an international relay event, returning in 43.25 seconds to beat their counterparts from Ghana and Benin Republic in the process. It was their second victory in two days in the national trials in Benin City.

However, Nigeria’s 4x100m men could not live up to expectations to the disappointment of the fans, as they ran 38.84 seconds in the event.

On Friday, the men’s 4x100m relay team ran 38.34 seconds in the international race to place 16th on the international spot and in the process pushed South Africa to the 17th position.

But just before the race yesterday, news filtered in that Liberia had jumped into the 16th spot in the world to outplace Nigeria.

The expectations of the fans was that the boys could run 37.51 seconds to return to the 16th spot and qualify for the relay event in Oregon. But it ended worse than their previous performance on Friday. The qualifying window ended yesterday and it was not clear if South Africa was able to sneak in.