Nigeria’s Favour Ofili has shattered the world record in the women’s 150m at the Adidas Atlanta City Games, USA, clocking a time of 15.85s.
Ofili becomes the first woman in history to run the event under 16 seconds.
The 22-year-old has now broken the previous world record of 16.23s by Bahama’s Shaunae Miller-Uibo in 2018.
In second place behind Ofili was Tamari Davies of the USA, Ashanti Moore of Jamaica was third while USA’s duo, Blackmon and Simon Kennedy placed fourth and fifth respectively.
Meanwhile, Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medal winner Ese Brume took part in the long jump event at the Adidas Atlanta City Games, where she leapt a season’s best of 6.70m.
She, however, finished fourth as the competition was won by world indoor champion Claire Bryant of the USA with a windy 7.03m, closely followed by Jasmine Moore with 7.02m.
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Ofili who began her athletic career in 2014 was named best female athlete at the 2019 African U-18 Championships after winning the 200 and 400 metres with new personal bests in both.
Still 16, she represented Nigeria at the World Relays in Yokohama a month later, running in the 4 × 100m and 4 × 400m relays. She won the 200m and finished second behind Patience George in the 400m at the Nigerian Championships in July, running under 52 seconds at the longer event for the first time.
Ofili bettered this mark at the African Games a month later, finishing second with 51.68s and qualifying for the World Athletics Championships in Doha.
She also anchored the Nigerian team (Kemi Francis, Patience George and Blessing Oladoye) to a gold medal in the women’s 4 x 400m relay at the Games. This secured a second senior medal for the young athlete.
As the youngest athlete at the World Championships in September, she improved her 400m personal best to 51.51 s but was eliminated in the semi-finals.
By James Agberebi
