The athletics event of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games started on Friday, August 2, with several Nigerians competing on the opening day. It was however a mixed fortune for Nigeria with two athletes failing to progress to the next round of their various events as they were eliminated in the first round.
The day started with Temitope Adeshina competing in the women high jump event where all she needed to do was to achieve the qualification standard of 1.97m to secure automatic qualification for the final of the event.
She cleared 1.88m, which was short of the 1.97m automatic qualification in group B. Her African rival Rose Amoanimaa Yeboah of Ghana who also did 1.88m to stay out of contention.
In the women’s 100m Rosemary Chukwuma posted 11.26secs in her heat to finish third behind Ewa Swaboda and Dina Asher-Smith.
Chukwuma qualified for the semi-final, where she needs to come up with a big run, to have a shot at the final. Nigeria’s other competitor Tima Godbless finished sixth in her heat with 11.33secs.
However, it is going to be a hard task for Chukwuma on Saturday in the semifinal of the 100m race as she will have to equal or run faster than the 10.92sces Blessing Okagbare ran in the semifinals of the 100m event at the London Olympics in 2012 to stand a chance of becoming the first Nigerian to run in the Olympic 100m final in 12 years.
This is because the 22-year-old has been drawn in what appears to be the heat of death as she will battle two of the three fastest women in the event this year, reigning world 100m champion, Shar’Carri Richardson (10.71secs) and Julien Alfred (10.77secs) drawn in her semifinal heat, for the two automatic tickets on offer for spots in the final.
Also drawn in the same semifinal heat are two-time Olympic 100m champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and reigning African Championships and African Games champion, Gina Bass.
