Okagbare-led relay team finishes last in 4x100m final

The Team Nigeria relay team led by Blessing Okagbare finished last in the women’s 4x100m relay of the ongoing Rio 2016 Olympics, on Saturday.

The Nigerian quartet — made up of Okagbare, Gloria Asumu, Jennifer Madu and Agnes Osazuwa — finished last in 43.21 seconds.

The event saw the US team led by Allyson Felix claim gold with a time of 41.01 seconds.

Jamaica and Great Britain won silver and bronze respectively, after crossing the finish line in 41.36 seconds and 41.77 seconds.

Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine and Canada, all finished ahead of the Nigerian ladies.

US’s gold came after it appeared set to collapse when its runners failed in the second baton pass in Thursday’s qualifier.

The team, however, got a reprieve after judges upheld their protest that a Brazilian runner bumped Allyson Felix as she was preparing to make a hand-off to English Gardner.

The US then took full advantage of their second chance, easily beating their target of 42.7 seconds in a bizarre solo rerun to qualify for the final.

It was also a superb outing for Jamaican Usain Bolt, as he claimed his ninth Olympics gold in grand style following the successful outing of the Jamaica 4x100m relay team.

The 29-year-old Bolt, who said his Olympics career was over, won the 100m and 200m in Rio and is the only man to win all three sprint events at three Olympic Games.

He combined with Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade to finish in 37.27 seconds.

Japan won silver and the USA were disqualified to hand Canada bronze and lift Britain up to fifth.

Bolt hinted in February that he would retire after the 2017 World Championships in London and will not compete at Tokyo 2020, when he would be about 34 years.

His haul of nine gold medals is the joint-highest among Olympic athletes, equal with USA sprinter and long jumper Carl Lewis and Finnish long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi.