Team Nigeria’s hopes of winning their first medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were dashed on Tuesday night due to disappointing performances from Favour Ofili and Blessing Oborududu.
In the women's 200m final, Ofili finished sixth with a time of 22.24 seconds. The race was won by USA’s Gabby Thomas, who clocked 21.83 seconds. New women's 100m champion Julie Alfred took second place with 22.08 seconds, and American Brittany Brown finished third with 22.20 seconds.
Ofili, 21, was unable to secure a medal despite running a season's best of 22.05 seconds to qualify for the final. She had previously run 22.24 seconds in the heats.
She made history as the first Nigerian woman to reach the 200m final at the Olympics in 28 years, following Mary Onyali's bronze medal win at the Atlanta 1996 Games.
Meanwhile, at the Champ de Mars arena, Oborududu lost 3-0 in the bronze medal match of the women’s 68kg freestyle wrestling to Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki. Oborududu, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Games, had narrowly lost 3-1 to Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova in the semi-finals on Monday night.
