African Games: Team Nigeria’s Okezie, Others Reach 400m Semifinals

Team Nigeria has maintained its push for a strong finish at the ongoing delayed 2023 African Games in Ghana as Chidi Anthony Okezie and six other Nigerian athletes qualified for the semifinals of their events in athletics respectively.

The US-born sprinter and two-time African Championships bronze medallist Okezie ran a season’s best of 45.89s to win heat 2 and book his place in the semifinals of the men’s 400m.

Similarly, Esther Elo Joseph was the fastest woman in the five 400m heats at the Games as she ran the race of her life, posting a lifetime’s best of 51.81s.

Also, through to the semifinals of women’s 400m was Brittany Aderinola Ogunmokun, who finished 3rd in heat 1 and booked an automatic spot.

Wisdom Great Musa also excelled in his 110m Hurdles race, finishing 3rd in his heat to secure an automatic qualification into the final with a time of 14.35s (-1.1).

In the men’s 100m race, Nigeria’s national champion Usheoritse Itsekiri clocked a time of 10.29s to reach semifinals, just as Consider Ekanem make sure of his place in the semifinals with 10.37s, defeating Ghana’s Aggerh Barnabas, who ran 10.42s to place second.