Nigerian-born member of Team South Africa at the Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) U-18/U-20 Championships, Oluchi Ndubueze, has won the U-18 long jump gold.

Ndubueze won gold with a leap of 5.79 m, ahead of Merzaq Kawtar of Morocco, who leaped 5.62 m, while Sandrine Bouda of Burkina Faso, with a jump of 5.25 m, completed the podium.

It was a sweet comeback for Oluchi Ndubueze after finishing fourth in the final of the U-18 100m. 

The Nigerian-South African athlete was extremely excited by her performance, stating that she is very proud to bring a gold medal back  .

She said, “I’m definitely very excited, very overjoyed, because I feel like I was able to get myself up after getting fourth in the 100m, which is not where I ought to place, but I’m still very grateful for the fact that I was able to pick myself up and win gold. I’m really blessed.”

She went on to add that she will not let her guards down and will start training immediately to improve on her distance, explaining that there’s room for improvement for her to meet and surpass her personal best of 6.2m.

The athlete further revealed “I’ll go back to training and look at what I can improve on both the long jump technically, and in the 100m on how I run my finals, because I’ll be competing at the World Junior Championships, next year in Eugene, USA.”.

By Oluwatobiloba Zeal-Adepetu Kumoye in Abeokuta