United States-based Nigerian sprinters, Favour Ofili, Kanyinsola Ajayi and Tima Godbless, at the weekend, qualified for the 2025 World Championships billed for Tokyo, Japan, in August.
While Ofili stormed to a 22.34 seconds finish behind reigning Olympic 100m champion, Julien Alfred (21.88) at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida to get her 2025 campaign to a brilliant start, Ajayi fulfilled his expectations of becoming the next Nigerian sprinter to break 10 seconds in the 100m event after recording a 9.96 seconds lifetime best to win the blue ribband event at same venue.
Ofili ended last season with a 22.05 personal season’s best, an improvement on the 22.11 seconds that she ran indoors in 2023, while a year earlier, she raced to a 21.96 finish to make history as the first Nigerian to break 22 seconds in the half lap event.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Ofili was denied the opportunity of running in the 100m, but made it to the semifinals in the 200m. She will be targeting another global appearance in the 200m, this time at the 20th World Athletics Championships this September, in Tokyo, Japan.
At the same arena, Louisiana State University sophomore, Tima Godbless clocked a personal-best time of 22.55 seconds (-0.3 m/s) to win the 200m invite.
The 20-year-old Godbless thus joins Ofili as the second Nigerian woman to secure automatic qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo. The qualification standard is 22.57.
Ajayi served notice of what he delivered at the weekend last month when he blazed to a 6.48 seconds personal best to equal the 60m Nigerian record set in 1999 by Deji Aliu, in Lievin, France.
While it took Aliu four years to run inside 10 seconds after running 6.48 in Lievin, it has taken Ajayi, the Paris 2024 Olympics 100m semifinalist, about a month to do so.
The 20-year-old has now become the 11th Nigerian man to break 10 seconds in the 100m event and the first man to qualify in the blue ribband event for the 20th World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. He is also the fourth fastest in the NCAA so far this outdoor season.
Ajayi is not the only one who set a new personal best on Saturday. Fellow Auburn Tiger, Israel Okon, who also dazzled to a new 6.51 lifetime best and African U-20 record in the 60m last month, ran a 10.07 personal best in the race to finish sixth in the overall classification. Adekalu Fakorede, the Nigerian leader in the event (10.11) before Saturday’s race in Gainesville ran 10.39 to finish 19th in the overall classification.
Former World U-20 200m champion, Udodi Onwuzurike ran 20.50sec to finish second behind reigning African champion, Joseph Fahnbulleh (22.07) of Liberia.
Godbless battled a strong head wind (-2.4 m/s) but still managed to stop the clock at 11.14 in the 100m, a day after storming to a 22.55 personal best in the 200m.
