Nigerian women 4x400m quartet rescued a bronze medal for the country at the IAAF World Relay last Sunday in Nassau, Bahamas.

And that achievement in a strong field of traditional rivals like USA, Jamaica and Great Britain, has given hope to Nigerian athletics officials that with a little bit more of hard work from the athletes and those in authority, there will be a revival of athletics in Nigeria.

Sade Abughan, Patience Okon George, Omolara Omotosho and Regina George lived up to expectations and they did not disappoint as they narrowly missed the silver after returning a season best time of 3.23.41 seconds, behind Jamaica’s 3.23 26. The race was won by the USA women with 3.21.73

The 4x100m women quartet, also gave it their best shot but were denied an appearance on the podium by Trinidad and Tobago who pushed them to the fourth place. Nigeria spear- headed by Blessing Okagbare returned 42.67 seconds their season best. The race was won by the USA team with 41.88 seconds a championships record, they beat Jamaican without Shelly Ann-Fraser-Pryce to the second place, they finished 42. 28, while Trinidad and Tobago clocked 41.66 seconds.

“Our women 4x400m have potentials to be great. After seeing them at the Penn and Mt Sac Relays I had great hope that they will be on the podium in Bahamas.

“Even the women 4x100m did well. They were only beaten by the whiskers to the fourth place and if not for the injuries to our men I am sure they would have done better.

“Things are looking up for our athletics. We only need to keep working hard to ensure that our athletes are up to world standards,” said Gabriel Opuana who is the eyes and ears of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria in the USA.

Saudi based coach, Taiwo Ariyo said that Nigeria have always been blessed with talents and the missing link was grooming and preparations of the athletes.

“We need more coaches to be employed to further develop millions of talents we have

“Let’s remember the population of Nigeria and dream about what we can accomplish if we put our act together but the continuity to this achievement is grassroots development. So we need more hands on deck,”

Former AFN vice president and sprinter, Jide Josiah stated that Nigerian athletics is in upswing and there will be many surprises in the days to come.

“I know that apart from these teams that did well in Bahamas, we have some new 400m runners coming up; you will see a good field during the All Nigeria/Cross River championships in Calabar.”