Team Nigeria will make a bid to win its first medals at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games today with sprinter, Favour Ofili, gunning for glory in the women’s 200m final while wrestler Blessing Oborodudu fights for bronze in the women’s 68kg freestyle, The Punch reports.
Ofili qualified with a season’s best of 22.05 seconds, following runner-up position behind new 100m champion Julien Alfred at the semifinals. Before that, she had run 22.24 seconds at the heats. With this, Ofili joined shot put thrower Chukwuebuka Enekwechi as the second Nigerian athlete to qualify for a track and field final at the 2024 Olympics.
The 21-year-old is the first woman from Nigeria to reach the 200m final in 28 years–since Mary Onyali took bronze at Atlanta 1996 Games. Ofili set the third-fastest time at the semifinals and will line up for the final in lane three, running alongside some of the top contenders like Daryll Neita and Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain.
Oborodudu lost 3-1 to Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the semfinals of the women’s 68kg freestyle wrestling. She, therefore, will not be defending her title, but she is still in the mix for the bronze. She will fight this in the repechage bout against North Korea’s Pak Sol Gum. But strong to bounce back, Oborodudu, second at the Tokyo 2020 games, won earlier contests. This includes an 8-2 win over Linda Morais of Canada in the quarterfinals and a 6-2 win over Koumba Larroque of France.
