Favour Ofili of Nigeria broke down in tears after she advanced to the 200-meter final of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Rekindling Nigeria’s chances for a medal at the Games, Ofili secured the second automatic slot in the race on Monday, advancing to the final.
She finished in 22.05 seconds, a season’s best, trailing only the 100-meter champion Julien Alfred of St. Lucia, who finished in 21.98 seconds. Mary Long of the United States finished in third place with a time of 22:30.
Since Mary Onyali qualified for the final of the women’s 200-meter race at the Atlanta ’96 Summer Olympics in the United States, Ofili is the first Nigerian to achieve the feat.
Ofili, who was born in 2002, almost six years after Onyali accomplished the same record, will be trying to surpass her countrymate’s bronze-winning streak.
The deadline for the final is Wednesday at 8:40 p.m. Due to administrative errors, the athlete was disqualified from the 100-meter race, which led to her historic performance.
In the meantime, Blessing Oborududu has advanced to the 68kg women’s freestyle wrestling semifinals.
In the opening round, Oborududu defeated Canadian Linda Morais 8-2. She then defeated Koumba Larrouque of France 6-2 in the quarterfinal. Later on Monday, the Nigerian will play Zhumanazarova Meerim of Azerbaijan.