Team Nigeria will have no interest in the Tokyo 2020 women’s 100m athletics final following Grace Nwokocha’s elimination on Saturday.
The 20-year-old sprinter was the only Nigerian left in the semi-finals after Blessing Okagbare was suspended earlier in the day for failing a pre-Olympics drug test.
Nwokocha finished fifth in the third semi-final in a time of 11.07s in a race won by Jamaican star and the fastest woman alive Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 10.73s, the quickest time in the semi-finals.
Cote d’Ivoire’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou won Heat 2 in 10.79, beating Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson in a photo finish.
Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica won Heat 1 in 10.76s to set up a tasty final scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
It was mixed fortunes in the men’s 100m, with two Nigerians advancing to the semi-finals while the third one was disqualified.
Usheoritse Itsekiri qualified for the semi-finals after coming third in Heat 1 in 10.15s behind USA’s Ronnie Baker (10.03s) and French veteran Jimmy Vicaut (10.07s).
In Heat 2, Enoch Adegoke won the race in 9.98s to set a new personal best and then become the 11th Nigerian in history to run the 100m in under 11 seconds.
Adegoke best Qatar’s Nigerian-born athlete Femi Ogunode to second place (10.02s), and Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes was third in 10.04s.
Nigeria’s brightest prospect in the event Divine Oduduru was unlucky, however, as he was disqualified for a false start in Heat 5.
Great Britain’s Reese Prescod had been guilty of the same offence earlier but he was not punished, instead the race was restarted and Oduduru got sanctioned for jumping the gun.
