Nigerian Shot put Record holder, Stephen Mozia bounced back to winning ways in grand style, setting a new National Record (NR) and Meeting Record (MR) of 20.82m, at the Andújar Athletics Meet in Andùjar Jaen, Spain on Saturday, July 16.
His winning mark is now ranked 18th in the world this year, and would be the second time this season that the former National Champion will be erasing his own outdoor record, the first being at the Kentucky Relays back in May where he threw a distance of 20.73m to win the event.
Mozia would be glad with his performance, after failing to win GOLD at the African Senior Championships in Durban, last month. There he won the country’s first medal on Day 1 of the competition, throwing a distance of 19.84m to finish 3rd.
On Day 2, he secured his second Bronze medal, this time in the Discus event by throwing a distance of 59.16m, to finish behind South Africa’s duo of Victor Hogan (61.68m) and Rusell Tuck (61.44m).
However there is a likelihood of Mozia being upgraded to the Silver medal position after Hogan tested positive for Methylhexaneamine at the South African Championships in April.
The 23-year old will surely be hoping to build on this form, which may probably get him a final berth when the Athletics event at the Rio Olympics Games kicks off in August.
Another Nigerian athlete that was in action in the Spanish city is former national 400m Hurdles Champion, Amaechi Morton who clocked 50.51s to finish 3rd. Cuba’s Omar Cisneros was the race winner in 49.56s while USA’s Quincy Downing clocked 50.39s to place 2nd.
