Olympic medallist, Falilat Ogunkoya, and Commonwealth gold medallist, Yusuf Alli, have praised Team Nigeria that who won gold in women’s 4x200m at the IAAF/BTC World Relays, Bahamas 2015, which was held on Saturday and Sunday.
The quartet of Blessing Okagbare, Regina George, Dominique Duncan and Christy Udoh, finished first and set a new national record of 1:30.52s in the race that had a USA team led by Allyson Felix as pre-event favourites.
Jamaica came second with 1:31:73s; Germany were third in 1:33.61 while China came fourth and set an Asian record of 1:34.89.
World 200m Bronze medallist, Blessing Okagbare, started off well in Lane 4, and handed the baton over to George, who maintained a good speed and handed the baton to Duncan, who is African 200m bronze medallist. Udoh completed the race for Nigeria
Ogunkoya told our correspondent that she was delighted by the victory and advised the team to work more on their time so as to do well at the 2016 Olympic Games holding in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
She said, “I think the girls did very well. There is no 4x200m in the Olympics and the World Championships; they will run 4x100m women, the 4x400m women. They have done very well. All they need to do now is to improve on their time.
“We should build on this. We still need to encourage the athletes. We will keep our fingers crossed for the 4x100m hoping that they will pass the baton the way they did in the 4x200m.”
On his part, Alli praised the athletes but expressed concern over the performance of the men.
He said, “I think our winning gold is fantastic. The women have done well. I’m very pleased. I’m only concerned about the men. The men are not doing as well as the women.
“This will give us some confidence that we can do it even at the Olympics and the World Championship in Beijing, where we should go now and make sure we get a medal in relay. The women 4x100m and 4x400m are very strong. We can compare them with the world.”
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