Team Nigeria men’s 4x100m team ran 38.73 at the African Region 2 track and field championships Friday evening in Lome to move closer to securing a place among the 16 countries that will participate in the event at next month’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The quartet of Udodi Onwuzurike, Ushoritse Itsekiri, Alaba Akintola and Seye Ogunlewe raced hoime first and moved three places up in the qualification ranking to joint 18th with the Belgian 400 relay team.
Prior to Friday evening’s race, Team Nigeria was ranked the 21st best based on the 38.81 the team ran at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last August.
The Nigerians need to run 38.49 to stand a chance of qualifying and supplant the Australian 4x100m team who ran 38.50 in March.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, will have to ensure the team runs in more qualifying relay races before the end of July deadline for qualification set by World Athletics.
Only two Nigeria relay teams, the women’s 4x100m and the mixed relay teams have qualified for the championships after running in the final of their events last year in Oregon at the 18th World Athletics Championships.
The men’s 4x400m relay team will be in action on Saturday, the final day of the championships and needs to, at least, better the 3:03.59 Portugal ran in Munich last August to start a chance of making it to the competition in Budapest