Barely a day after an impressive Personal Best (PB) in the 60m, Divine Oduduru has stormed to yet another milestone, this time around racing to a new Nigerian Record in the men’s 200m Indoor with a PB of 20.18s at the Texas Tech Open meet.
Not only does that time put him on top of the men’s 200m (indoor) in the world this year, Oduduru is now number 4 on the all-time list, a stellar performance that sees him in good company as Namibia’s Frank Fredericks.
In fact just three people have run faster than him in the men’s 200m indoors, with Fredericks holding the World Record (WR) of 19.92s set 22 years ago, while Wallace Spearmon (20.10s) and Christian Coleman (20.11s) are the only people to have run faster than Oduduru.
🚨🔥🚨🔥🚨🔥
ODUDURU
No. 3️⃣ NCAA All-Time
No. 1️⃣ nationally
No. 1️⃣ WorldHUDSON
No. 2️⃣ nationally
No. 2️⃣ worldCHAMPLIN
No. 7️⃣ nationally
No. 1️⃣1️⃣ world#WreckEm pic.twitter.com/zcH3R6Kzdq— TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) February 3, 2018
Oduduru stuttered a bit after the last curve, but it did not stop him from powering to a fast finish and surpassing Francis Obikwelu’s long standing Nigerian record of 20.46s.
It was only a matter of time before Oduduru gets the better of Obikwelu’s record having served a glimpse of what to expect when he raced to a then WL of 20.49s last month, only to lose it to Ncincihli Titi a day later after the South African clocked 20.45s. However he has now reclaimed the WL and looks like he would be keeping it for some time.
There were 16 heats on the day, but Oduduru was the clear standout performer, having easily won heat 1 ahead of Andrew Hudson who was 2nd in 20.42s and Steven Champlin placing 3rd in 20.89s
Another Nigerian athlete who also competed was Aniekeme Alphonsus, who won heat 3 of the women’s 200m with a time of 24.03s ahead of D’jia Baker who was 2nd in 24.23s and Devin Johnson 3rd in 24.54s
