Favour Ashe Recounts African Championships Setbacks After Relay Silver For Nigeria

Favour Ashe has revealed the series of setbacks he believes cost him an individual medal at the African Championships in Athletics in Ghana, despite helping Nigeria to relay silver.

Favour Ashe, 24, narrowly missed the podium in the men’s 100m final after a turbulent run to the race. Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme won gold, South Africa’s Bradley Nkoana took silver, while Nigeria’s Chidera Ezeakor secured bronze.

Ashe’s campaign was thrown into chaos early on. He was disqualified in the heats before successfully appealing and earning a place in the semi-finals through a solo run.

“For my personal experience, I will rate the championships a five. My spike got missing before my 100m semi-finals and my bibs got missing,” Ashe told Making of Champions.

“Also, the false start in the 100m heats took my confidence from 10 to four because we ran the race and I expected them to say we should run again, but they gave me a red card. We had to appeal before I was allowed to come back for the solo race. That was when my spike got missing and I had to look for a bigger spike to run the solo race. Mentally, I was stressed. That wasn’t a good one for me, knowing that I would run the semis and the final the following day.”

He eventually finished outside the medals in the final, falling short of his pre-championship target of gold.

There was redemption in the men’s 4x100m relay. Ashe ran the opening leg as Nigeria’s quartet of James Emmanuel, Tejiri Godwin and Ezeakor clocked 38.70 seconds to win silver behind Ivory Coast, who claimed gold in 38.52 seconds. Ghana finished third.

“When it comes to the 4x100m, I always want to give my best. I knew I had to set the pace with the first leg and everybody did their job, but I just saw Ivory Coast coming from lane one to win,” Ashe added.

Before the championships, Ashe also helped Nigeria qualify for the mixed 4x100m relay at the World Relays in Botswana. He recently reaffirmed his commitment to Nigeria after speculation linked him with a switch of allegiance to Qatar.