Omolara Omotosho-Ogunmankinju was the difference for Nigeria in the 4x400m mixed relay on Tuesday as the team fought hard to clinch the gold medal at the ongoing 13th African Games in Accra, Ghana.
The 30-year-old, along with the trio of Emmanuel Ojeli, Patience Okon-George, and Sikiru Adeyemi, ran a time of 3:13.26, which is a new African record, breaking the one set by the Nigerian team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
NIGERIA WINNING GOLD IN MIXED 4X400M WAS SUCH A SPECIAL FEELING!
If there’s anything Omolara Omotosho-Ogunmankinju wants from a shopping mall in Naija, she should enter and tell them that the bill is on us…
Omolara singlehandedly turned Silver to GOLD for Nigeria, running… pic.twitter.com/UjY8zWs3Wj
— Making of Champions (@MakingOfChamps) March 19, 2024
The quartet entered the final of the event, which was originally tipped to be a win for Botswana. However, things didn’t go as planned for the Southern African nation, as they had to settle for the silver medal.
Ojeli started the race off for Nigeria, but he ended up in second place after the first leg before handing the baton over to Okon-George, who turned things around for the team, putting Nigeria in the lead after the second leg.
Botswana were not going down without a fight, and Olympic bronze medalist Bayapo Ndori was on third-leg duty as he showed his supremacy by putting enough distance between himself and Adeyemi heading into the final lap.
With a possible second-place finish looking like the best bet for Nigeria, Omotosho-Ogunmankinju looked determined to propel her team to the first position. She made up a deficit of over 20 meters to stun Botswana, as they settled for a second-place finish with a national record of 3:13.99.
