Oghenebrume thro’ to Paris 2024
Nigeria’s 100m hurdles star, Oluwatobiloba Amusan made the headlines yesterday at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational clocking a time of 12.40s (0.9), a World Lead time to storm to an emphatic win in the women’s 100mH.
She defeated World Champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica who came second in 12.46s, while Christina Clemons of the United States was third in 12.54s.
In perfect +0.9m/s conditions in Kingston, the 26-year-old Nigerian star stormed to an emphatic victory over a top-class field.
Her blazing world lead time of 12.40 seconds saw Amusan blow away the opposition, with current World Champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica settling for second in 12.46s.
American Christina Clemons took third in 12.54s as Amusan reasserted her dominance on the global stage.
Amusan has been in scintillating form so far in 2024, having opened her campaign with an African record of 12.58s in Doha last month.
In a related development, Godson Oghenebrume is the latest Nigerian to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics after retaining his 100m title at the SEC Championships with a commanding time of 9.99s in Gainesville, Florida, in the early hours of yesterday.
‘Brume’ gave a glimpse of what he was about to do after clocking the overall fastest time in the heats in a Season’s Best (SB) of 10.05s.
The following day, just barely 90 minutes after anchoring his team to their 7th 4x100m title in the last eight editions of the SEC Championships with a time of 38.19s, he ran an SB of 9.99s to retain his title ahead of Wanya McCoy (10.02s) and T’Mars McCallum (10.03s).
Compatriot Kayinsola Ajayi was 7th in a PB of 10.09s while Favour Ashe Did Not Start (DNS), although he ran 10.13s in the heats.
Brume now joins Ashe as the second Nigerian male sprinter to have qualified in the 100m for the forthcoming Olympics.
Meanwhile, Nigerian athletes Rosemary Chukwuma and Temitope Adeshina earned huge points for Texas Tech over the weekend as the pair won the women’s 100m and High Jump titles respectively at the Big-12 Championships in Waco, Texas.
Chukwuma clocked a Season’s Best (SB) of 11.12s to earn her maiden Big-12 Outdoor 100m title, which backed up the Big-12 60m title she claimed during the indoor season, making it her first 60m/100m sweep in the Big-12 Championships in the same season.
Iyana Gray placed 2nd with a time of 11.24s while Kevona Davis returned a time of 11.32s to take 3rd.
Adeshina, who is having a sensational freshman year, scaled a height of 1.90m on her last attempt to also achieve a Big-12 sweep both indoors and outdoors. Her jump of 1.90m is an outdoor SB, eclipsing the 1.88m she registered at the Corky Shootout two weeks ago.
Cierra Allphin was 2nd in 1.83m while Saara Hakanen and Claire Lowrey tied for third with a mark of 1.80m.
