Nigerian duo race into 100m final

Nigerian duo Divine Oduduru and Ese Brume are now in the final of the 100m event at the 12th African Junior Championships in Athletics which began yesterday, Thursday, March 5 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Oduduru,a 200m silver medallist at the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships  in Oregon,USA ran 10.46 seconds to win the second semi-final and qualify for today’s final.

Oduduru will run from lane 6 in the final.

In the women’s version, Commonwealth Games long jump queen, Brume also made it to today’s final with a 12.31 seconds performance.

She came in second in the first semi-final won by South Africa’s Tamzyn Thomas (12.02).

Brume’s Nigerian compatriot, Aniekeme Alphonsus however won the second semi-final (12.15) to also book a place in today’s final.

Brume and Alphonsus have been drawn in lanes 3 and 4 respectively for today’s final.

Nigeria holds the men and women’s African junior records in the event.

Davidson Ezinwa has the record of the fastest junior in Africa with his  10.05 seconds run in Bauchi in 1990 while Joan Uduak Ekah holds the record in the women’s version with her 11.11 seconds run in Laussane,Switzerland in 1999.

Nigeria’s Mercy Nku also holds the championship record of 11.38 seconds set on her way to winning four gold medals at the second edition of the championships in Bouake, Cote D’Ivoire in 1995.

In the men’s long jump, Theddus Okpara picked Nigeria’s first medal at the championship,a silver after leaping 7.44m in his second attempt.

In the men’s 400m, the duo of Adekunle Rilwan Fasasi (47.02) and Adewale Adeyemi Sikiru (47.33) zoomed into the final by winning heats two and one respectively albeit they will find Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Hailu Bali (46.54) and Botswana’s Karabo Sibanda (46.74) real and visible obstacles to winning the title.

Emoghene Timothy ran 53.29 seconds to qualify for the men’s 400m hurdles final and has been drawn in lane seven.

South Africa leads the medals table with two gold medals after the first day of competition.

Morocco and Ethiopia also notched up a gold medal each to come second and third respectively while Nigeria is fifth behind Egypt who has a silver and a bronze medal.