Nigeria’s representation at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya finished with a total of four gold and three bronze medals, achieving an overall 3rd place finish.
The Nigerian Sports Minister, Sunday Dare also pledged to support sports investment in the country and commended the performance of Nigeria’s young athletes at the competition according to a report from the News Agency of Nigeria.
On the last day of the competition, Nigeria won a bronze medal at the 4x100m relay event, as Praise Ofoku, Favour Ofili, Anita Traviore and Tima GodBless returned a time of 43.90 seconds behind Jamaica and Namibia, while in the women’s 4X400 relay, Nigeria won gold as Opeyemi Oke, Imaobong Uko, Ella Onojuvwevwo and Favour Ofili, finished with a time of 3:31:46 seconds.
Sports Minister, Sunday Dare disclosed that finishing in third place on the medals table out of the 114 countries that participated in the Championships is no mean feat.
“These young Team Nigeria athletes deserve our respect for representing this country so well. We congratulate them on their record-breaking performance in Nairobi, Kenya.
“It is a commendable achievement that places Nigeria on the world map of world athletics and signposts a new trajectory for the sport in Nigeria,” he said.
Dare pledged the ministry’s commitment to continue nurturing and grooming the young stars.
“We will keep these young heroes and heroines, monitor, support, train and invest in them. We will design a programme for them and have them prepared for more victories,” he stated.
The Minister added that the FG has started building a new and younger generation of Nigerian athletes that will surely do the nation proud as there is so much hope for the future.
Nigeria’s outing at the Juniors Athletics championships comes after the Tokyo Olympics where the country secured a bronze medal in the Long Jump competitions through Ese Brume.