Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi won the first gold medal for Nigeria in the athletics event of the ongoing 2023 African Games in Ghana, finishing first in the men’s shot put final on Tuesday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Africa indoor record holder successfully defended his African Games title by landing a 20.06m mark, one metre ahead of Egypt’s duo Mostafa Hassan (20.70m) and Mohamed Hamza (20.29m) in second and third respectively.
Another Nigerian, Emeka Ugwu, was also in the final but finished fifth with a mark of 16.43m.
Meanwhile, the men and women’s 100m titles eluded Nigeria as Usheoritse Itsekiri won silver in the men’s final while Olayinka Olajide settled for bronze in the women’s event on Tuesday.
Nigeria went into the final with a strong representation of four athletes; two each in both finals but that didn’t guarantee dominance on the podium.
Itsekiri, who won bronze in Rabat 2019, ran 10.23s to finish second while compatriot Consider Ekanem missed out on the podium after finishing fourth in 10.42s. The race was won by Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme (10.14s) while Namibia’s Gilbert Hainuca got bronze in 10.29s.
In the women’s final, Olajide finished third with 11.55s and managed bronze in her first international outing for Nigeria. The race was won by Gambia’s Gina Bass, who clocked 11.36s and was followed in second by Liberia’s Maia McCoy (11.49s).
Nigeria’s other representative in the women’s 100m final, Tiana Eyakpobeyan, finished fifth in 11.60s.
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