05 Sep 2018

-  Nijel Amos, who returned to track in style at the Zagreb World Challenge in Croatia on Tuesday, looks ready to do well at the IAAF Continental Cup meet to be held in Ostrava over the weekend.

Amos, who could not finish men’s 4x400m relay final race at the 21^st Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) African Senior Championships recently due to an injury, finished on first position with a Meeting Record (MR) of 1:44:08  followed by Polish Marcin Lewandowski with 1:44.43, while position three went to Kenyan Jonathan Kitilit. During the race, Amos applied a very tactic approach, as he dictated the pace of the race. He maintained composure even though he at some point he was trailing behind some athletes.

It was in the back straight that he outclassed his opponents to finish the race on pole position.

Amos, who used the challenge to prepare for weekend meet, will represent Africa in the 800m race together with Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir.

He said in an interview that he was happy with his performance after recovering from an injury he sustained during the championships held in Asaba, Nigeria recently.

The idea, he said was to enjoy the race and finish on a good position given that he will compete in the continental cup.

Amos admitted that he has had a ‘rough couple of years’ adding that he was not yet on his best form.

He appreciated his team in USA for their patience.

Track and field analyst, Billy Tambula said the first lap was very fast because Amos’ training partner, Harun Abda was the pacesetter. When Kitlit followed the pacesetter, he said  it became clear that the pace of the race would be slower because he allowed Abda to open a gap of about three metres hence blocking Amos from going at a much higher pace.

“Towards the last bend when he started challenging for the first place you could see that he was very comfortable to win it,” he said. ENDS