Nigerian quartermiler, Chidi Okezie, has again warmed the hearts of Nigerians with his inspiring run in two races at the World Relays in the Bahamas, which secured the mixed 4x400m and men’s 4x100m relay spots for Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In the wee hours of Sunday, the 30-year-old produced the fastest splits in the two races to Nigeria’s ticket on day one of the World Relays.
He ran the third leg of the mixed 4x400m relay team with the fastest overall split of 44.78s to overtake the USA and handover the baton to Elo Jospeh who ensured Nigeria finished second with a time of 3:13.79, which automatically sealed their spot at the Olympics for the second consecutive time.
Okezie returned to the tracks to anchor the men’s 4x400m team and he showed no signs of tiredness as he overtook Jamaiaca’s anchor Demish Gaye on the home straight to ensure a second-place finish for Nigeria a time of 3:01.70.
His split was 44.46s and with their time of 3:01.70, they ran the fastest time by a Nigerian male 4x400m team since the bronze-winning team of James Godday, Musa Audu, Saul Weigopwa and Enefiok Udo-Obong ran 3:00.90 at the Athens 2004 Olympics.
President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Tonobok Okowa, described Okezie’s feat as a reward for hard work.
“We are all happy and he has been working very hard so I believe God is about to reward his work,” Okowa told our correspondent.
“He is a calm quiet man and he is still working hard. The last time he spoke to me, he said his aim is to reach the podium at the Olympics and I believe he is going to achieve that with the way he is going.”
Other Nigerians also hailed the African Games gold medallist for his impressive performance in the Bahamas.
“Chidi Okezie deserves a national award. The two automatic qualification spots we have to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games had Okezie’s handwriting boldly written all over both races,” a sports analyst, Ifeoluwa Leo-Olagbaye wrote on Facebook.
“Without taking anything away from other brilliant athletes whom I will give their due flowers, I must say Okezie played a major role in both automatic qualifications. He was saddled with leading the 400m athletes to the Bahamas and he led on the tracks – that is the trademark of a born leader!”
Athletics writer, Deji Ogeyingbo, also wrote after the race, “Chidi Okezie is an absolute monster! Seals Nigeria’s second automatic qualification spot in Paris for the men’s 4×400.”
“Chidi Okezie is a monster. He’s grown into this 400m race thing. In the mixed, he outpaced the American, only for our anchor leg to lag behind and we finished second,” a fan Chiby Ike noted.
Born to a Nigerian father Moses Okezie and a Jamaican mother Carol Morris, Okezie graduated from Hampton University in 2015 and has a Master’s in Sports Administration. Before switching to Nigeria in 2016, he was part of the American 4×400m relay team that won a gold medal at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona.
Since he started representing Nigeria in 2016, Okezie didn’t win a gold medal for the country until the 2023 African Games in Ghana where he ran a personal best of 45.06s which is also the fastest time by a Nigerian athlete in that discipline in nine years.
It was also Nigeria’s first gold medal in the men’s 400m at the African Games since 1987.
At the Tokyo 2020 Games which was held in 2021, Okezie was among the 10 Nigerian athletes who were barred from competing due to out-of-competition issues and he will be looking forward to barring that experience in
Paris.
