2023 African Games: Nigeria's Usheoritse Itsekiri claims revenge after beating Ghana to win 4x100m relay

The anchor leg for Nigeria's 4x100m relay team, Usheoritse Itsekiri, has remarked that winning gold in the Men's 4x100m relay at the 2023 African Games in Ghana felt like payback.



He stated that it was retaliation for Ghana's gold medal in the same event in Abuja when Nigeria hosted the Games in 2003, revenge for Ghana's victory against Nigeria in the same event in 2019, and any other event in which Ghana had defeated Nigeria.

"It feels like a revenge for 2003. It feels like revenge for 2019, and it feels like revenge for every single time Ghana has beaten Nigeria. We took one for the team. We were going to break that jinx today, and we did it," he told Joy Sports.

While describing how the race played out, Usheoritse, who was overjoyed with his victory, could not recall much but said that Ghana's anchor leg, Joseph Paul, gave him a hard time, but he wanted it more than the Ghanaian.

"I'm so excited; so I can't really see far and I didn't know what was happening. I kept focus and I just wanted to do my thing. I got the baton from the third leg and I saw the Ghanaian guy, he was coming, and he was pressing through but in me, I was like 'I want this more'. So I wanted it more than the Ghanaian guy and that's how I won it today," he said.

Team Nigeria beat Team Ghana by a whisker to win gold in the Men's 4x100m relay final at the 2023 African Games on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

Nigeria won the race with a time of 38.41s, beating the defending champions Ghana, who clocked 38.43, while Team Liberia came third with a time of 38.73.

Ghana led the race after the first two baton changes, but the final change to anchor leg Joseph Amoah went wrong, resulting in Nigeria claiming the win.

Watch highlights of the Men's 4x100m relay final below



EE/EK