Budapest 2023: Ofili, Akintola Advance To 200m Semis
On Day 5 of the ongoing World Athletics Championships, tagged Budapest 2023, Team Nigeria athletes Favour Ofili and Alaba Akintola advanced to the semifinals of the women’s and men’s 200m, respectively.
The African Indoor Record holder, Favour Ofili, who is coming from a nagging injury that saw her miss most of the outdoor season, finished 4th in Heat 1 of the women’s 200m with a time of 22.66s.
She qualified for the semifinals as the fastest non-automatic qualifier across seven Heats. Anthonique Strachan won the race in 22.31s over Daryll Neita’s 22.39s.
This is Ofili’s third World Championships. She made the 400m semis in Doha four years ago, and also narrowly missed out on a spot in the women’s 200m final in Oregon where she she ranked 9th overall in the semis.
Alaba Akintola
Making his first appearance at the World Athletics Championship, Team Nigeria athlete Alaba Akintola ran a good race to secure an automatic qualification to the semifinals of men’s 200m.
National Champion Alaba Akintola grabbed one of the automatic qualification spots after initially placing 4th in 20.54s but was upgraded to 3rd when Ryan Zeze who originally got 3rd, was eventually disqualified despite running under protest for a false start.
World Silver medallist Kenny Bednarek took control of the race in 20.01s ahead of Alexander Ogando (20.14s).
Nigerian champion will return to the track on Thursday for the 200m semifinals.
