On August 8, in the women’s 4x100m relay heats, something unexpected happened. The anchor leg started with Australia leading, Jamaica following closely behind, and the USA just in place for third. But a Nigerian runner, Miracle Oluebube Ezechukwu, changed it all in 9.81s. Starting from fourth, she took over the US, knocking the host’s team out of the finals. But just 24 hours later, the Nigerians must be wondering, all that for what?

One simple mistake has now cost the same team heavily.

As soon as the gun went off in the women’s 4x100m final, Lucy Nwankwo, the Nigerian starter, false-started, disqualifying the entire team. As seen on the stream, Miracle Oluebube Ezechukwu immediately hunched on the track in distress, while Nwankwo appeared overwhelmed, covering her face as the reality of the disqualification sank in.

“I know rules are rules, but this is so hard to watch. They are absolutely distraught,” one commentator said. After the officials’ DQ ruling, the Nigerians could only watch as Jamaica took gold in 42.89 seconds, followed by Switzerland in 43.36 and Belgium in 43.91.

However, it later came to light that ahead of her false start, Lucy Nwanko was reportedly concerned over something…

Nigerian sports journalist Christopher Maduewesi explained, “Every athlete knows that changing spikes a few minutes before a race is a recipe for disaster. She [Lucy] spent about 1hr that she ought to have used to warm up, uncertain if she would run.”

At the same championships, the Nigerian mixed 4x100m relay team was disqualified too, as Perfect Faye, one of the runners in the quartet, was wearing unauthorized spikes. And Lucy discovered that her spikes fell under the same specification.

To explain briefly, the mixed 4x100m relay quartet of Tejiri Godwin, Chigozie Rosemary Nwankwo, Perfect Faye and Ezechukwu initially finished fourth in 41.77 seconds. The performance appeared to set new African and Nigerian U20 records.

The celebration, however, lasted only briefly as Faye’s spikes were found not to be on the World Athletics-approved list. This led to the team’s disqualification and the removal of their record from the books.

Given the background of this incident, Maduewesi reported that “Nerves set in – pressured moments got to her,” right before the race. “Last word on the Lucy Nwankwo FS – in almost 4yrs of covering that girl, she had never false-started before today,” he added.

Adding to the relay heartbreak, there’s another narrow miss she endured at the World U20 championships this year.

Double Heartbreak for the Nigerian at the World U20 Champs

Lucy Nwankwo competed in the women’s 100m individual event, where she finished 5th in a time of 11.77s and did not advance.

After the race, she spoke about what went wrong, “I knew I wasn’t going to perform well, but I didn’t know that it would go to this extent,” she said in a Making of Champs interview. She added that she could not warmup and stretch very well before the race.

Yet after her recent false start, Maduewesi encouraged the youngster, saying, “Even the best athletes in history are not immune from false starts.” But looking at how things have gone for Team Nigeria, particularly at the 4×100 events, it is really a bit hard to believe.

Now both these incidents make it two relay opportunities and two heartbreaking disqualifications.

For a group of young Nigerian athletes who had shown enough speed to challenge the world’s best, Eugene delivered a harsh blow.

The disappointment will surely sting, but they have already proven themselves at the bigger stage. However, the challenge now is turning these painful lessons into experience and making sure the next time opportunity knocks, they are ready to answer.