On April 14th 2014, nearly 300 girls in Chibok in Northeastern Nigeria were abducted from their secondary school in the dead of the night by Boko Haram militants. We bring you our final photos from the recently concluded World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, where the whole world of Track & Field got behind the #BringBackOurGirlscampaign.
In this final instalment of our #BringBackOurGirlsNow Campaign, we bring you these photos from the rest of the Athletics Worlds, specifically, the Relay Squads of Team USA, Jamaica, GB, France and St Kitts & Nevis:
Jamaica, 4x200m GOLD & World Record, World Relays 2014 (L-R, Nickel Ashmeade, Jermaine Brown, Warren Weir, Yohan Blake
USA, 4x100m GOLD, World Relays 2014 (L-R, LaKeisha Lawson, Jeneba Tarmoh, Alexandria Anderson, Tianna Bartoletta)
St Kitts & Nevis, 4x200m Silver, World Relays 2014 (L-R, Antoine Adams, Lestrod Roland, Allistar Clarke, Brijesh Lawrence)
France, 4x200m Bronze, World Relays 2014 (L-R, Yannick Fonsat, Ken Romain, Ben Bassaw, Christophe Lemaitre)
USA, 4x400m GOLD, World Relays 2014 (L-R, Monica Hargrove, Deedee Trotter, Jessica Beard, Sanya Richards-Ross)
Team GB 4x100m, World Relays 2014 (L-R, Asha Philip, Anyika Onuora, Desiree Henry, Jodie Williams)
Nigeria posted a commendable performance at these 1st ever World Relays, with a 4x400m Bronze and 4th place in the 4x100m, and it was perhaps fitting that it was our girls who posted those results. #BringBackOurGirls has slowly started ebbing from the world’s consciousness, but the girls are still very missing. We believe that we must keep up the pressure on the powers that be to #BringBackOurGirlsNow. Let’s keep the Chibok girls at the forefront of our minds – we need them home NOW!
On April 14th 2014, nearly 300 girls in Chibok in Northeastern Nigeria were abducted from their secondary school in the dead of the night by Boko Haram militants. At the recently concluded World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, Team Nigeria got behind the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. Nigeria posted a commendable performance at these 1st ever World Relays, with a 4x400m Bronze and 4th place in the 4x100m, and it was perhaps fitting that it was our girls who posted those results:
Nigeria’s 4x400m World Relay Bronze-winning team (L-R, Sade Abugan, Patience Okon George, Omolara Omotosho, Regina George)
Nigeria’s 4x100m World Relay 4th-place team (L-R, Blessing Okagbare, Gloria Asumnu, Dominique Duncan, Francesca Okwara)
Nigeria’s 4x400m World Relay Team (L-R, Isah Salihu, Noah Akwu, Tobi Ogunmola, Amechi Morton)
#BringBackOurGirls has slowly started ebbing from the world’s consciousness, but the girls are still very missing. We believe that we must keep up the pressure on the powers that be to #BringBackOurGirlsNow. Later today, we will post our final pictures from the Bahamas to keep the Chibok girls at the forefront of our minds. We need them home now.
She will be contesting the Long Jump on Friday evening (May 30th) from 7pm local time (3am Nigerian time – not televised live). For the first time this season she’ll be up against the Olympic and 3-time World Champion, USA’s Brittney Reese, who beat Blessing by just 2 centimetres at last year’s World Championships. The whole field is strong – also competing is last year’s Long Jump Diamond League winner, Britian’s Shara Proctor, as well as USA’s Janay Deloach Soukup and Russia’s Darya Klishina, both of whom have jumped further than Blessing’s Personal Best of 7.00 metres during their careers. It will be interesting to see if Blessing is able to stretch her lead in the Diamond League standings for the Long Jump – she currently leads the standings, with 4 points from her win in Shanghai!
The 200 metres on Saturday at 10.13pm Nigerian time (Live on SS6) will be no less challenging. Blessing will be up against reigning 200m World Champion, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, as well as current Olympic Champion, USA’s Alyson Felix, who is in her first 200 metre race since pulling up at last year’s World Championships Finals, where Blessing got the Bronze. The Silver Medallist in that race, Cote d’Ivoire’s Murielle Ahoure also races for the first time this season, so there will be plenty of competition for the first three spots, to win Diamond League points – Blessing also leads here, with 4 points from her 200m win in Shanghai!
There is no other Nigerian interest in this weekend’s Diamond League in Eugene, as 2-time Nigerian 400m Champion Regina George will not feature in the women’s 400 metres – one can only hope that we will see her again in the Diamond League soon, to replicate the form that saw her run a stunning 49.4 second split in the Bronze medal performance of Nigeria’s 4x400m women’s quartet at last week’s inaugural World Relay Championships. It would also seem that the 400m hurdles would also not feature Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya, who just switched her allegiance from Nigeria, announcing her arrival with a new National Record for Bahrain at the Doha Diamond League earlier this month in 54.59s, the fastest time in the world this year!
For Nigerian viewers, SuperSport 6 (DSTV Channel 206) will show the Eugene Diamond League meet LIVE from 9 – 11pm Nigerian time on Saturday (May 31st).
Blessing Okagbare will be going in the women’s 200m at 10.13pm. The women’s 400m will be at 9.24pm, while the women’s 400m hurdles will kick off the live broadcast, at 9.03pm.
Making of Champions will be bringing you special updates and reports ahead of, during and after each Diamond League event in 2014, with a particular focus on Nigeria’s leading athletes – stay tuned!
2014 IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 9 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
Eugene, USA – 31 May
Rome, ITA – 5 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 11 Jun
New York, USA – 14 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 3 Jul
Paris, FRA – 5 Jul
Glasgow, GBR – 11-12 Jul
Monaco, MON – 18 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 21 Aug
Birmingham, GBR – 24 Aug
Zurich, SUI – 28 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 5 Sep
On April 14th 2014, nearly 300 girls in Chibok in Northeastern Nigeria were abducted from their secondary school in the dead of the night by Boko Haram militants. At the recently concluded World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, the whole world of Track & Field got behind #BringBackOurGirlsNow – after posting our first series of photos yesterday, which featured IAAF President Lamine Diack, and Bahamian 4x400m Olympic GOLD medallist, Chris Brown, amongst others, here are more today, featuring British 400m Olympic GOLD & Silver Medallist, Christine Ohuruogu MBE, and former Bahamian 400m World Champion, Tonique Williams-Darling:
Christine Ohuruogu MBE, British 400m World Champion (’13, ’07), Olympic GOLD (’08) and Silver Medallist (’12)
Bukola Abogunloko, Nigerian 4x400m World Relay Bronze Medallist, 2014
Tobi Ogunmola, Nigerian 400m Runner
Victoria Ohuruogu, British 400m Runner
Amechi Morton, Nigerian 400m Runner
Bambo Akani, Making of Champions Founder
Nigeria posted a commendable performance at these 1st ever World Relays, with a 4x400m Bronze and 4th place in the 4x100m, and it was perhaps fitting that it was our girls who posted those results. #BringBackOurGirls has slowly started ebbing from the world’s consciousness, but the girls are still very missing. We believe that we must keep up the pressure on the powers that be to #BringBackOurGirlsNow. Tomorrow, we will post more pictures from the Bahamas to keep the Chibok girls at the forefront of our minds. We need them home now.
Yesterday (May 27th) was Children’s Day in Nigeria, and also marked over 6 weeks now since nearly 300 girls in Chibok in Northeastern Nigeria were abducted from their secondary school in the dead of the night by Boko Haram militants. At the recently concluded World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, the whole world of Track & Field, led by IAAF President Lamine Diack, got behind #BringBackOurGirlsNow
Nigeria posted a commendable performance at these 1st ever World Relays, with a 4x400m Bronze and 4th place in the 4x100m, and it was perhaps fitting that it was our girls who posted those results. #BringBackOurGirls has slowly started ebbing from the world’s consciousness, but the girls are still very missing. We believe that we must keep up the pressure on the powers that be to #BringBackOurGirlsNow. Over the next few days, we will be posting more pictures for the Campaign to keep the Chibok girls at the forefront of our minds. We need them home now.
Lamine Diack, President of the IAAF
Chris Brown, Bahamian 4x400m Olympic Champion 2012
Regina George, Nigerian 4x400m World Relay Bronze Medallist 2014
Margaret Adeoye, British 4x400m World Championship Bronze Medallist 2013
It was a special night in the Bahamas and a hard fought race that saw Nigeria’s 4x400m Women take the Bronze Medal in a stunning time of 3:23.41, the fastest any Nigerian Quartet has run since the Falilat Ogunkoya-led team of the Sydney 2000 Olympics! Team USA more or less led from start to finish (3:21.73), but the Nigerian Quartet of Sade Abugan, Regina George, Omolara Omotosho and Patience Okon George, fought the Jamaicans (3:23.26) tooth and nail for the 2nd place, right till the very end!
“Look at the turbo being applied by Regina George round the bend – another storming leg for Nigeria!” the commentator excitedly blasts on the 2nd leg – we’re getting used to hearing that about this @DivaOnTheTrack, she did similar on the anchor legs at the 2013 World Championships and the Penn Relays in April. Her split on the 2nd leg was a mind boggling 49.4 seconds (the fastest of any athlete in the whole race)!Abugan led the team off with 52.30s, while Omotosho and P. George ran 50.9s & 50.81s splits respectively to bring the Bronze home for Team Nigeria!
The awesomeness of this performance from the whole TEAM cannot be overstated – it is the first RELAY medal for Team Nigeria since the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and it is already the 3rd fastest Season for Nigeria in our history of running the women’s 4×4. Only the Silver Medal winning team of Atlanta ’96 (African Record Holders at 3:21.04) and the Sydney 2000 team (3:22.99) have ever run faster. This bodes extremely well for Team Nigeria for the Commonwealth Games this year, where they can now consider themselves a GOLD medal contender against the likes of Jamaica!
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We are likely witnessing a new dawn in Nigerian Athletics for the women’s 400 metres. At Making of Champions, we have long since considered Current 2-time 400m Champion Regina George as one to watch for the Rio 2016 Olympics. But now we must start looking at this whole team, not only as Relay medal contenders at the next Olympics, but also as possible semi-finalists and finalists in the individual 400 metres at Rio 2016! Bukola Abogunlokois the fifth member of this Relay team, who also picks up a Bronze medal after running the third leg in the heats!
Less than 2 hours later, Regina George and Patience Okon George (no relation) returned to the track, joining Dominique Duncanand Francesca Okwara for Nigeria’s first ever 4×200 metre run! Although they only finished in 7th, they set a new National Record of 1:33.71 by virtue of being the first ever quartet to contest the event for Nigeria! Something tells us that this is one NR which will not stand for very long – 2015 World Relay Championships: Team Nigeria is coming!
The highlight of the 1st night of the World Relays was the World Record in the 4×200 metres set by the Jamaicans, despite the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt being absent! Yohan Blake anchored the Jamaica team home in 1:18.63 in the seldom run event (Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir and Jermaine Brown complete the quartet), shaving off 0.05s from the former World Record, which was set in 1994 by a Carl Lewis-led USA team!
Jamaica clearly came with a plan to break this record, and hence take home the extra $50,000 for a World Record, in addition to the $50,000 earned for winning the race! Imagine how much lower they can bring this down, if Usain Bolt decides to turn out for the World Relays next year!
St Kitts & Nevis took a surprising 2nd in 1:20.51, while France celebrated the Bronze in 1:20.56, after Team USA was disqualified for a botched changeover outside the zone. Team Nigeria failed to record a time in the event, after Nigeria’s number 1 male sprinter Ogho-Oghene Egwero limped off injured in the 2nd leg of the Heats earlier in the day. Considering that this is Nigeria’s first time in history competing in the 4×200 metres, any kind of finish would have become a new National Record!
Nigeria put on a dominant display in the women’s 4x400m Heats at the World Relays on Saturday, winning comfortably in a Season’s Best of 3:27.07, to go through to the Finals on Sunday. The quartet of Sade Abugan, Regina George, Bukola Abogunloko andPatience Okon George brought the team home, well ahead of their rivals in this heat:
Can they win a medal in the Finals on Sunday? The second Heat was stacked with USA, Jamaica & GB, who will all pose a threat for Nigeria in the finals. USA & Jamaica seem to be a cut above the other teams, and even though GB was third in that heat, the current 400m World Champion, Christine Ohuruogu did not run the Heats, so once she comes in for the Final, Team GB will also be tough to beat. Team Nigeria’s ladies may have to shave off up to 2 seconds of their Season’s Best to win a mdeal – we won’t have long to find out!
Here’s what Regina George had to say after the race:
Nigeria came home comfortably winning that heat in 3:27.07 – how does the team feel about the run?
We came here to make the final, and you can’t ask for much more, so we’re pleased with that. Hopefully we can run a season’s best in the final.
That was a season’s best in the Heat just now, so how are you feeling about going even beyond that in the Final?
Well, in any competition you’re meant to run faster in the final if everything goes right…
You haven’t met the Jamaicans or the Americans, so how do you feel about the team lowering your time enough to match them?
I feel pretty good about it. We’ll take it one step at a time – everybody is here to compete for the GOLD, and that’s what we came here to do. It will be hard, but it will be worth it once we come out with a season’s best.
You ran a storming 2nd leg and you gave Bukola and Patience a great head start to lead from the front – will you be running the 2nd leg in the final?
I don’t know – we just tried to moving things around in the Heats, but we’ll see when we talk to the coaches, then they will tell us what order to run in the finals.
It was a case of close but yet so far for Team Nigeria’s girls, as they missed out on what could have been Nigeria’s very first medal at the Inaugural World Relay Championships on Saturday. The quartet of Gloria Asumnu, Blessing Okagbare, Dominique Duncan and Francesca Okwara finished in a season’s best time of 42.67s, behind Team USA (41.88s), Jamaica (42.28s) and Trinidad & Tobago (42.66s):
This was an extremely commendable run for the quartet, especially considering the Duncan and Okwara were competing for Nigeria for the very first time. They had also run a season’s best in the Heats, with a 42.77s run that qualified them for the final behind Jamaica. In the Final, they were just 3 hundredths of a second off the time that the quartet of Christy Udoh, Gloria Asumnu, Oludamola Osayomi & Blessing Okagbare ran at the London Olympics, also for 4th place.
Despite the narrow loss of the Bronze medal, Nigerians can take solace from the fact that by virtue of finishing in the Top 8 in this event at the World Relays, our women’s 4x100m team have qualified automatically for the 2015 World Championships in Beijing! Let’s applaud them for a job well done – with Team USA not taking part in the Commonwealth Games in July/August, This Nigeria team should be a shoe-in for a Commonwealth Games medal, providing they can get the baton round safely!
Here’s what the Team Nigeria ladies had to say after the race:
Blessing Okagbare
You missed out on the Bronze by a hundredth of a second – how can the team take this performance?
I think it was okay, it’s a totally new group and we’re just getting to know each other. We’re working on certain things, so I think we did okay
You ran a Season’s Best (SB) in the final, can you take some encouragement from that?
We ran an SB in the heats and the finals, so that’s something to go home with. I think that’s one of the fastest that the Nigeria team has actually done, so I think it’s great for us going forward.
I think you were only 0.4 seconds away from the Nigerian and African Record? Do you think this team can break that record this year or next year?
We will be able to break it – this is a new team, so once the girls start running faster we will do it. Like I said, we’re just getting to know each other and learning so much from each other.
So this team should be in good frame to get a medal at the Commonwealth Games?
Yeah, we’re looking forward to that!
Gloria Asumnu
How do you feel about missing the Bronze by a hundredth of a second?
I mean that hurts, because it’s like you’re right there. This is the first time that the four of us have run together, believe it or not. We haven’t done many handoffs, so it’s a good sign for what’s to come, we just need to come together as a team and do what we need to do for the Commonwealth Games, and for the following year
You ran SBs in the heats and finals and not very far away from the Nigerian and African Record?
Yes, that’s something we’re chasing, but at the same time we just want to stay healthy and be able to get better individually, so when we come together as four (the improvement) is automatic
What are your hopes for the Commonwealth Games, individually and relay?
Individually, we need to bring home medals. Everyone, no matter what event it is – make the finals and bring home medals! For the relays, we’re keen to focus on that too because, you know, Nigeria loves relays! It’s about team unity, so to bring home a GOLD would be excellent!
Francesca Okwara
This is the first time you’re competing for Nigeria – can you tell Nigerians back home a bit about yourself? What can we expect from you in the coming years?
Well, I grew up in Memphis but my dad was born in Nigeria – he’s from Imo State. I run the 100 and 200 metres – you can look out for me to become one of the top sprinters for Nigeria in the future.
Fantastic – what are your Personal Bests (PBs) in the 100m & 200m?
11.4 seconds in the 100 metres, and 23.3 seconds in the 200 metres
Have you been to Nigeria recently? When will you be coming next?
Actually I’ve never been – I’ll be coming for the first time in June, for the Commonwealth Games Trials. I hope to lower my PBs, to 11.2 in the 100 metres and to 23 low in the 200 metres.
Nigeria’s 10th and very last Relay medal on the global stage came at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in the women’s 4x100m quartet of Franca Idoko, Halimat Ismaila, Gloria Kemasuode and Oludamola Osayomi, brought home the Bronze medal in 43.04 seconds, against all the odds, behind Russia and Belgium! (Agnes Osazuwa also won a Bronze medal by virtue of having run in the heats):
One can say that the stars aligned on this one for Nigeria, considering that Team USA was disqualified in the heats, while Team GB and a Jamaican quartet that was widely tipped to break the World Record, dropped their batons in the Final and did not finish! Indeed, the quartet at the following Olympics, which included Blessing Okagbare on the anchor leg, finished quicker in 42.64 seconds, but could only manage 4th place behind Team USA’s new World Record of 40.82s, and National Records for Jamaica and Ukraine in 2nd and 3rd place:
This was a classic case of Nigeria improving, but everyone else improving a whole lot more – can you imagine that our Bronze medal winning time of 43.04s at Beijing ’08 would not have even made the finals at London 2012? What will the current girls comprising Team Nigeria’s 4×100 quartet (Blessing Okagbare, Gloria Asumnu, Peace Uko and Endurance Abinuwa) do TONIGHT at the 1st ever World Relays, in the semis @ 10.45pm and possibly the finals @1.30am Nigerian time? It will show LIVE on the IAAF Official Channel on YouTube, and on SuperSport 6 (DSTV Channel 206) on TV!
Team Nigeria’s Bronze Medal winning quartet in the women’s 4×100 metres at the Beijing 2008 Olympics!
The World Relays is a new annual competition (the 1st edition being held in The Bahamas on May 24th/25th), where the world’s best Track & Field nations will compete over 10 different events – 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x400m, 4x800m & 4x1500m (both men and women). There is a total prize fund of $1.4 million up for grabs, and for the 4x100m & 4x400m, the 2014 World Relays will serve as the qualifiers for the 2015 World Championships (as will the 2015 World Relays for the 2016 Olympics). For viewers in Nigeria and Africa, the World Relays will show LIVE on SuperSports and the IAAF Official YouTube Channelon May 24th/25th
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