By Ben Efe 20.4.2026
Athletics Federation of Nigeria technical director Gabriel Okon strongly believes something good is happening to the Nigeria’s relay teams and in the days to come results will speak for themselves.
Okon was speaking against the back of Team Nigeria’s quartets picking up qualifications for the World Relays in Gaborone, Botswana. This marks the first in recent times Nigeria is qualifying without the useful fire brigade approach, which more than often put the athletes under pressure and then they fail to deliver.
All six relay teams are heading for the Gaborone 2026 world relay extravaganza and barring any hiccups from there they could up their rankings ahead of the World Championships 2027 and Olympics 2028. Interestingly the qualifications were achieved with mostly home-based athletes.
“This is the first time in recent years will be qualifying our relay teams in one go, it shows that things are being done differently,” said Okon a former Nigerian sprinter and technically gift coach.
“It also goes to goes to show that if provided all the necessary tools, our athletes can produce results and, in this regard, I must give kudos to the National Sports Commission bosses Shehu Diko and Bukola Olapade and also the AFN president Tonobok Okowa for being present and providing for all the teams’ immediate needs.”
He said the three weeks camping in Asaba, Delta State and two weeks tour of Botswana for the African Relay Invitational and participating in Botswana national trials was the tonic the athletes needed to turn up with big performance.
“Before we went to Gaborone for the African invitational relay, we had 42.9, in the women 4x100m that wouldn’t get us into the final when other countries getting serious with their relay team, but we were able to put up a team that came up with a 41.44 taking us from number 40 to number 12 in the world.
“Then in the men’s 4x400m last year at Yaba Tech we tried to qualify with the likes of Nathaniel Ezekiel, Chidi Okezie, but it was difficult the atmosphere wasn’t just right they ran a 3.03
But this year we went to Gaborone with Emmanuel Ojeli, Samson Nathaniel, Sikiru and Imeh Victor, they ran a 3.02.98, the women already qualify in Calabar even with 53 runners.”
Okon posted that there are so many things involved in making the relay quartet click.
“People might just think that relay is all about baton exchange and one two-step practices. It is a strategy you have to evolve from time to time. You have to be a relay genius to really understand the technicalities involved. It is all about technical work driven by decisions that gives your results. Your decisions must be performance driven.
“We are trying to inculcate a relay system in our athletes and that is going to be our standard practice, so that whoever comes in as our coach will continue in that template.
“The French relay team that set a world record 37.97 back in the days, they all were 10.2 and 10. 3 runners, but because of the precise baton exchange they were able to get ahead of other countries and so that is the thing we are trying to teach our 4×100 and 4x400m teams.
He noted that the performances were encouraging and it is something that would be built upon going forward.
“The system has given us a good lee way; we have good chances of making the top 16 of the World Championships and the Olympics but the ultimate goal is to get into the top eight.
“I’m banking on our teams to pull some surprises as the season progresses… remember that it is still very early in the world calendar, many runners have not even opened up yet.”