U.S.-based athletes’ performance excites AFN

Favour Ofili

The build-up by some Nigerian athletes based in the United States ahead of the National Trials for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is giving officials of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) great excitement.

The 21-year-old sped to a Personal Season’s best and world-leading time best of 9.99secs to win the 100m event at the Florida Relays in Florida. He supplanted Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (10.02sec) as the fastest man so far this season outdoors.
 
Before then, Samuel Ogazi broke a 26-year-old record to emerge as the new Nigerian 400m U-18 record holder after running a 45.35seconds lifetime best at the 2024 Battle on the Bayou held at the LouisianaState University’s Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge.
 
Ogazi was beaten to the top position in the final classification by Christopher Morales Williams, who ran 45.18 to win, but the Nigerian made history as the fastest Nigerian U-18 to break 45.40 seconds in the event.
 
Nduka Awazie ran 45.44seconds to set the mark in Senegal in 1998 and it stood for 26 years until Ogazi, who came to the competition with a 45.91seconds lifetime best and 46.26seconds personal season best, erased it.
 
According to SportsNow.com, Ogazi’s time is also the second fastest Nigerian U-20 time of all time behind Emmanuel Bamidele (45.28seconds) and the fastest U-20 time in the world so far this term.
 
“I can’t imagine what the AFN National Trials will look like in a few months to come,” an official said in a chat with The Guardian yesterday.

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