2022 Athletics Outdoor Season: Amusan, Onwuzurike in flying start
Onwuzurike ran a new personal season’s best of 20.38s in the 200m to successfully complete a sprint double in California.
Reigning Nigeria, Africa and Diamond League 100m hurdles champion Tobi Amusan opened her 2022 season with a big bang over the weekend according to Sports Day.
The petite, 24-year-old who skipped the indoor season ran a wind-aided 12.58s (+2.6m/s) to win the sprint hurdles at the Masked Rider Open in Lubbock, Texas, USA ahead of Texas Tech’s Demisha Roswell (12.66s) and Oral Roberts University’s Gabrielle Gibson (13.32s).
The second Nigerian in the race, New Mexico Junior College athlete Ese Awusa ran 14.04s to place ninth.
Amusan, who was denied a world lead in the 100m hurdles by a trailing wind was also denied a new, massive personal best in the 100m flat as her 11.11s effort was aided by another 2.6 m/s wind.
Homegirl Rosemary Chukwuma did not start albeit she was listed to run.
In the women’s 200m, Ese Awusa ran a new 23.75s personal best to place third while Knowledge Omovoh of Texas Tech University finished 10th in the final classification with her 24.28s run.
Onaara Obamuwagun of Texas Tech University was second in the women’s triple (13.34m) behind Anne-Suzanna Fosther-Katta who hopped, stepped and jumped 13.93m.
The 23-year-old Nigerian’s mark was just a centimetre off her 13.35m personal best which she set last May at the Texan Track & Field Complex, Levelland, Texas.
At the Battle On The Bayou event held at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge, the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana, Favour Ofili ran an 11.11s lifetime best over the 100m to place second behind Aleia Hobbs (11.06s).
The time is the fastest by a Nigerian and the second-fastest by an African woman so far this year. It ranks the 19-year-old the fourth fastest in the NCAA this year and joint 11th fastest in the Nigerian all-tme list with Tina Iheagwan and Joan Uduak Ekah.
It also makes Ofili the second Nigerian sprinter after Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha to qualify via the entry standard for the World Athletics Championships which holds this July in Oregon, USA.
Elsewhere, a day after twice breaking the school 100m record, Udodi Onwuzurike ran a new personal season’s best of 20.38s in the 200m to successfully complete a sprint double at the Stanford Invitational at Cobb Track and Angell Field in California.
The 19 year old Nigerian’s time of 20.38 is believed to be the fastest outdoor time in NCAA Division I this year, and only 0.05 off the 1978 Stanford record held by James Lofton.
Onwuzurike, who also broke the Stanford freshmen record of 20.93 by Isaiah Brandt-Sims from 2015, also nearly reached the Stanford Invite meet record of 20.33 by Washington’s Ja’Warren Hooker from 2001.
In four collegiate meets – two indoor and two outdoor – Onwuzurike owns two school records (indoor 60 and outdoor 100), the No. 2 time in the outdoor 200m and No. 9 in the 4x100m.
In the latter, the Stanford team of Simon, Miles Zoltak, Karson Lippert, and Onwuzurike ran 40.10, Stanford’s fastest time in four years.
He ran 10.07s in the 100m on Friday to set a new personal best and school record. The time is the fourth fastest by an African man so far this year and sixth fastest in the world.
His 200m time is the second fastest by an African so far after Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh’s 20.22s run in Florida.
Onwuzurike is the fastest Nigerian over the 100 and 200m so far this year. He holds a 200m personal best of 20.21s which he ran to win the World U-20 gold in Nairobi, Kenya last year.
