Nigeria’s 4th Global Relay Medal, and our first ever Relay medal at the World Championships, came at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg in the men’s 4×400 metres. The Nigerian Quartet that brought home the Bronze was made up of Udeme Ekpeyong, Kunle Adejuyibe, Jude Monye and Sunday Bada (RIP), who ran a storming final leg, picking up the baton in 6th place seemingly out of contention, but bringing Team Nigeria home in 3rd!
Sunday Bada was probably Nigeria’s most decorated male athlete – he was the Nigerian National 400m Champion a record 9 times, a World Indoor 400m Champion & Double Silver Medallist, an Olympic GOLD Medallist in the 4x400m (more on that in the coming days!), and a World Championship Bronze Medallist in the 4x400m, thanks to this amazing anchor leg run in Gothenburg! He was fifth in the 400m final at the 1993 World Championships in a time of 44.63s, which makes him the second fastest Nigerian ever in the 400 metres, behind Innocent Egbunike’s 44.17s!
Sunday Bada was the Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) when he passed away suddenly at the National Stadium in Lagos in December 2011. As Nigeria’s No 1 Quarter-Miler for the best part of a decade, he is sorely missed!
The World Relays is a new annual competition (the 1st edition being held in The Bahamas on May 24th/25th), where the world’s best Track & Field nations will compete over 10 different events – 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x400m, 4x800m & 4x1500m (both men and women). There is a total prize fund of $1.4 million up for grabs, and for the 4x100m & 4x400m, the 2014 World Relays will serve as the qualifiers for the 2015 World Championships (as will the 2015 World Relays for the 2016 Olympics). For viewers in Nigeria and Africa, the World Relays will show LIVE on SuperSports on May 24th/25th – more details soon!
