Nigeria’s Imaobong Nse Uko fulfilled expectations by coasting home to gold in the women’s 400m event on day four of the ongoing World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.
Nse Uko came to the Championships as the fastest among the contenders following the 51.70 seconds she ran to win the gold at the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival in April and lived up to pre-race hype by becoming the fourth Nigerian to win the category after Fatimah Yusuf in 1990 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and Olabisi Afolabi in Lisbon, Portugal in 1994 and Folashade Abugan in Poland 2008.
The 17-year-old ran a new 51.55 seconds personal best to achieve the feat.
The time further extended her record as the fastest 400m U18 athlete in the world in 2021 and the 17th fastest in the Nigerian all-time list.