Okezie turns to National Trials after Olympics qualification

African Games gold medallist, Chidi Okezie, who has just punched his ticket for the men’s 400m of the Paris 2024 Olympics is eager to be back in the country to compete in the national trials which will hold at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City from Sunday June 16 to June 18, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Okezie secured qualification to this summer’s Olympic games in Paris after running a new personal best of 44.97s to win the men’s 400m at the Edmonton Athletics Invitational in Canada on Thursday.

He broke the elite 45 seconds for the first time in his career, defeating Wil London III and DaeQwan Butler both from the United States of America.

A few hours after setting his new PB, he confirmed to PUNCH Sports Extra that his next event would be the National Trials in Benin City.

“It’s a great feeling to run the qualification standard. I’m definitely coming for the trials,” he told our correspondent.

The event will be used by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria to pick athletes for the Paris Olympics, the Africa Championships which holds later this month in Cameroon and the World U-20 Championship in Lima, Peru, from August 27 to 31.

After winning his first-ever gold medal for Nigeria at the African Games in Ghana in March, Okezie has also inspired the men’s 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m relay teams to pick the Olympics tickets during the World Relays in the Bahamas.

Okezie played a strong part in qualifying for both events, running back-to-back inspiring races which secured the mixed 4x400m and men’s 4x100m relay spots for Nigeria at the Games.

The 30-year-old, joined by Dubem Nwachukwu, Dubem Amene and Sikiru Adeyemi in the men’s 4x400m produced a time of 3:01.70, 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.

In the mixed event, Okezie, Samuel Ogazi, Ella Onojuvwevwo, and Esther Joseph broke the African record and also clocked a national record of 3:12.87. The previous record stood at 3:13.26, set by Emmanuel Ojeli, Patience Okon-George, Sikiru Adeyemi and Omolara Ogunmakinju at the 2023 African Games in Ghana.