THE GUARDIAN
Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium agog as Nigeria’s best athletes vie for slots
World record holder, Oluwatobilola Amusan, yesterday in Stockholm, showed why she is still the woman to beat in the 100m hurdles, when she ran a time of 12.52 seconds to win the Swedish leg of the Diamond League.
Amusan’s time was lower than what she returned on Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she made 12.45 seconds to finish second behind Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who ran a meet record of 12.40 seconds.
Relatively little known Nigeria’s Emmanuel Bamidele was also in fine form, as he won the silver medal in the 400m in 45.48 seconds behind South Africa’s Zakhiti Nene, who won the gold in 45.30 seconds.
However, it was not so smooth for World Championships’ silver medallist, Ese Brume, who could only finish fifth in the women long jump.
Meanwhile, Amusan, Brume, Emmanuel and other Nigerian athletes competing in the Diamond League are expected in Benin today to compete in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria’ (AFN) national trials, which is the qualifier for this year’s World Athletics Championships billed to hold in Budapest, Hungary.
Already, seven foreign-based stars are among the over 160 athletes expected at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium from July 5 to 7 to battle for tickets to Budapest.
Although the AFN has set tomorrow as arrival date, some of the foreign-based stars arrived in Benin City yesterday…
