August 04, (THEWILL) – The Olympics dream of teen Nigerian canoeist, Ayomide Emmanuel Bello, to become more than just the first Nigerian female athlete to contest in the event but have a medal for her efforts came to an end in Wednesday’s Quarter-Final 3 at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The inspiring feat of the 19-year-old still is worth telling as she emerged third from Heat 3 in her event, the Women’s C-1 200m, finishing with a time of 47.539 behind Cuba’s Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys’s time of 47.267 in second and Katie Vincent of Canada in front with a 46.391 time.
She earned her place in the quarter-finals with that result and remained competitively poised to progress further. The young canoeist improved upon her qualifying time to finish Quarter-final 3 in 47.326, which placed her in third again behind athletes from Belarus and Germany.
However, automatic qualification was reserved for only the top two and that meant that she fell out of places for progress. Instead, Alena Nazdrova of Belarus, who led the quarter-final with a 46.950 time and Germany’s Lisa Jahn, who finished in 47.049, qualified.
Yet, Bello has shown what is possible for her and any other female Nigerians willing to go where no other Nigeria has ventured before in the plethora of varieties that exist for medals at the Summer Games.
It began when at 17 years old, when she won her event at the 2019 African Tokyo 2020 qualifiers in Morocco and qualified as the first Nigerian female canoeist and second Nigerian athlete to enter the canoeing event, after Jonathan Akinyemi, who competed at the 2012 London Olympics.
Seven months before that, Bello beat all other opponents to win Nigeria’s first gold medal at the Open International Canoe Sprint Competition in India.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
