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Itsekiri Usheoritse recorded the latest feat as it turned out to be a weekend of superb athletics for Nigerian sprinters as they raise hopes of possible podium appearances in September/October at the IAAF World Championship in Doha,
Qatar.
Itsekiri ran an inspiring 10.07 seconds (+1.7mps tail wind) to come first in the 100m event at the Rehlingen Leichtathletik meeting 2019 in Germany.
Itsekiri secured in the process the qualification standard for the IAAF Worlds in Doha. The time is also a huge personal best for the 21 year old who only last December at the National Sports Festival improved his personal best to 10.27 seconds.
Itsekiri Usheoritse’s feat will be good news to Nigerian athletics officials as they now have three sprinters who have broken at least 10.1 in the 100m so far this season.
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USA-based duo of Raymond Ekevwo and Divine Oduduru are the other two sprinters who have improved significantly this outdoor season.
Ekevwo ran inside 10.1 seconds (10.02 seconds) last month at the 2019 South Eastern Conference (SEC) Championships, while Oduduru was the star of the show at the NCAA Division 1 championship in Austin, Texas where he cemented himself as one of the greatest collegiate sprinters in history, winning both the 100m and 200m in nothing less than dominant fashion. He ran a 9.86 in the 100m for the second-fastest time in NCAA Championship history and current top ranking in the world.
He also ran a championship-record 19.73 in the 200m, surpassing his own mark from earlier in the season as the second-fastest ever run by a collegiate and hops into the third spot in the 200m world rankings.
By Dare Esan
2 Comments
Great news for Nigerian sprinters,we only need to build on this and with more work on grass root development things can only get better.
I pray they dont run too many races and then burn out when it really matters. To be able to do so, they would need all the support they can get