OKAGBARE, ODUDURU PULL OUT OF WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS’ SPRINTS

Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare Ighoteguonor and Divine Oduduru have pulled out of the 100m at the on-going IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

According to release by the AFN Chairman of i media committee Amanzi Marcus, the Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Sunday Adeleye said the decision was to allow the duo concentrate more on the 200m and the relays.

Also on the opening night of the Championships, Nigeria’s Rilwan   Alowonle qualified to the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles placing fourth in heat 3 in 50.04 as Home Boy, Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba won in 49.08 at the Khalifa Stadium.

Alowonle’s personal best and season best is 49.62. In the 100m heats, America’s Christian Coleman won in 9.98 followed by South Africa’s Akanni Simbine in 10.01.

In a moment that will hardly be forgotten on day one, during the final lap of the 5000m heat, Jonathan Busby of Aruba began to stagger and with just 120m remaining to finish the race, fellow competitor Braima Sundar Dabo came to his aid, and the two finished the race as the crowd gave them a standing ovation.

Busby was later disqualified for receiving outside assistance to complete the race but the moment of sportsmanship will live long after the result may have been   forgotten.

Despite this, Dabo, of Guinea Bissau is a candidate for fair play award usually given at the end of the Championships.

The heat was won by Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega in 13:24.69.

 Doha 2019 will see three brothers compete in the same individual track event after European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, was reinstated after he was initially disqualified for stepping inside the kerb, allowing him to join his brothers Henrik and Filip in the final of the 5000m.