Team Nigeria’s Imaobong Nse Uko on Saturday won the gold medal in the women’s 400m event of the World Athletics U-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.
Nse Uko came to the Championships with the fastest time among the contenders following the 51.70secs she ran at the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival in April.
She lived up to pre-race hype by becoming the fourth Nigerian woman to win the event’s gold after Fatimah Yusuf in 1990 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Olabisi Afolabi in Lisbon, Portugal in 1994 and Folashade Abugan in 2008 in Poland.
The 17-year-old ran a new 51.55secs personal best to achieve the feat.
The time further extended her record as the fastest U-18 athlete in the world in 2021 and the 17th fastest in the Nigerian all-time list.
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