South Africa’s Oluchi says “I’m very excited, overjoyed qualifying for World Junior Championship”

A member of Team South Africa at the Confederation of Africa Athletics. (CAA), U18/U20 Championship taking place in Abeokuta, Oluchi Ndebaeze, claimed top spot in the U18 long jump and with a smile said, “I’m excited; overjoyed.”

Ndebaeze won the gold medal with a distance of 5.79m ahead of Merzaq Kawtar of Morocco 5.62m while Sandrine Bouda of Burkina Faso with a jump of 5.25m completes the podium.

It was a sweet comeback for Oluchi Ndebaeze after coming fourth in the U18 100m on Friday.

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

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

 “I feel like I was consistent with the distance, 5.79m but I’m not close to my personal best. My personal best is 6.2m, but I had two no jumps that were over 6m, so I just knew that I had it within me. I’m just grateful to take this,” she added.

She says 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.

“I’ll go back to training and look at what I can improve on but in 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.”

She expressed her deep love and appreciation to all her fans in Nigeria and back home in South Africa, for all the support.

“I just want to say thank you for all your love and support, I really appreciate it, I feel it, and its one thing that keeps me going,” she said.

Oluchi Ndebaeze was captivated by the high level of friendliness and sportsmanship displayed in the Rock City, Abeokuta, by fellow athletes.

“They were a very nice group of girls, very friendly and showed great sportsmanship I think it was amazing.”