Nse Uko wins 400m gold at World Athletics U20 Championships

Nigeria’s Imaobong Nse Uko claimed gold in the women’s 400m event of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.

The 17-year-old athlete ran 51.55 seconds — a new personal best — to achieve the feat on Saturday.

The time further extended Uko’s record as the fastest U18 athlete in the world in 2021 and the 17th fastest in the Nigerian all-time list.

She went to the championships as the fastest among the contenders following the 51.70 seconds she ran to win the gold at the National Sports Festival in Edo state.

Uko became the fourth Nigerian woman to win gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships.

She follows in the footsteps of Fatimah Yusuf who won gold in 1990 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Olabisi Afolabi in Lisbon, Portugal in 1994; and Folashade Abugan who won in Poland in 2008.