Nigerian sprinter, Cecilia Francis continued her chase for qualification for the forthcoming IAAF World Indoor Championships by competing in the Jablonec Indoor Gala in the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Francis ran in the 60m where she placed 4th in a time of 7.41s, finishing behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye who equalled her own National Record (NR) to win the final in 7.10s.
Slovenia’s Maja Mihalinec clocked a Personal Best (PB) of 7.24s in 2nd position, while Lisa Mayer of Germany was 3rd in 7.35s.
Francis posted the same time of 7.41s in the heats where she took 2nd behind Ahye who led the race with a Meeting Record (MR) of 7.11s. The qualification mark for the World Indoors, which is less than two weeks away is 7.32s.
The sprinter made her indoor debut last month at the Meeting Elite en salle de Metz in France where she clocked 7.40s, which put her at the top of Nigeria’s 2016 Indoor list.
She was part of Nigeria’s 4x100m women’s team that struck GOLD at the 2015 African Games in Brazzaville where she made her international debut as part of the senior team. She teamed up with Blessing Okagbare, Lawreta Ozoh and Ngozi Onwumere to take the title.
