Nigeria’s young athletics sensation, Enoch Adegoke’s bid to win a medal in his first Olympics appearance was thwarted when he was forced out of the 100m finals by injury, 40 meters into Sunday evening’s race at the Olympic stadium in Tokyo.
The 21 year old had made history earlier in the night when he became only the third Nigerian man to qualify for the 100m final after the iconic duo of Davidson Ezinwa and Olapade Adeniken.
The reigning Nigeria 100m king set a new 9.98 seconds personal best in his first round heat to raise expectations of a possible historic medal but in the final, a possible hamstring injury ensured he pulled up soon after the 40 metres mark and after overtaking Canada’s Andre De Grasse on his outside lane.
De Grasse would later finish third fuelling beliefs that Adegoke could have raced to the podium and into the history books.
Adegoke’s fairytale story which ended as an Olympic 100m finalist began in January when he scorched to a 10.16 seconds world lead at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, All Comers meet in Akure, South West Nigeria.
Two months later, he ran 10.16 seconds again at the MOC Grand Prix at the sports ground of Yaba College of Technology in Yaba, Lagos.
Although qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics wasn’t a stroll in the park for him, when he eventually made it, he used the Tokyo Olympics to prove that his incredible performances in Nigeria did not happen by accident as he chose the biggest sporting stage in the world to announce his arrival into the club of sub-10 seconds 100m runners in Nigeria.
His 9.98 seconds performance in his first round 100m heat in Tokyo made him the 11th man to break 10 seconds in the event in Nigeria and the 25th in Africa.
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