Team Nigeria’s hopes of securing their first medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were dashed on Tuesday night due to disappointing performances by Favour Ofili and Blessing Oborududu. Ofili finished sixth in the women’s 200m final, clocking 22.24 seconds, while American athlete Gabby Thomas claimed gold with a time of 21.83 seconds. Julie Alfred, the new women’s 100m champion, took second place with 22.08 seconds, and Brittany Brown, another American, secured third with 22.20 seconds.
At 21, Ofili was unable to convert her earlier season’s best of 22.05 seconds into a medal, despite improving from her heats time of 22.24 seconds. She is the first Nigerian woman in 28 years to reach the 200m final at the Olympics, following Mary Onyali’s bronze medal performance at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
In wrestling, Oborududu lost 3-0 in the bronze medal match of the women’s 68kg freestyle to Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki. Oborududu, who won silver at the Tokyo 2020 Games, had previously been narrowly defeated 3-1 by Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova in the semi-finals.
With no medals yet secured, Team Nigeria now looks to women’s 100m hurdles record holder Tobi Amusan and other athletes in athletics, weightlifting, and wrestling to carry their hopes forward.
