Following Tobi Amusan’s 4th place finish at the women’s 100m hurdles final on Monday, Minister of Youth and sports Development Mr Sunday Dare has commended her efforts.
“Tobi Amusan still remains one of Nigeria’s greatest competitors in athletics. She gave a good account of herself. We celebrate her exploits.
“The important thing to note is that many of our top athletes made it and are still making it to the finals in many events particularly here at the Olympics; a competition of huge magnitude where winners are separated in milliseconds. This in itself is an achievement and proof that we are in the committee of the best in respect to many sports in the world.
“This is a new and young generation that will be world beaters anyhow. We still hold hopes for medals in the remaining events we are taking part in”.
Meanwhile, Team Nigeria’s Grace Nwokocha on Monday advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s 200 metres event.
Nwokocha ran a personal best of 22.47 seconds to finish third in heat 1 of the event to gain one of the automatic tickets to the semi-finals.
Cote d’Ivoire’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou won the heat with 22.30, while the Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller-Uibo was second with 22.40.
In the same vein, Blessing Oborodudu advanced into the semi-finals in the wrestling 68kg event after a hard-fought 3-2 win against Meerim Zhumanazarova.
Earlier, she defeated Azerbaijan’s Elis Manolova 13-2 in the quarter-finals.
Blessing Oborodudu is now guaranteed a medal, while Nwokocha is also a prospective medal hopeful.