Divine Oduduru was one main man over the weekend on the NCAA loop where he put out a Personal Best (PB) of 6.52s in the men’s 60m at the Big 12 Championships, winning the event in a new School Record (SR) faster than the time he formerly shared with Andrew Hudson who finished 2nd in the same race in 6.57s.
The new PB set him up as the 2nd fastest collegiate athlete this season behind Grant Holloway who ran 6.51s few weeks before Oduduru ran his time. The last time a Nigerian athlete ran faster was in February 2007 when Olusoji Fasuba clocked 6.49s. It also places Oduduru in joint 5th on the all-time Nigerian list.
Oduduru wasn’t done yet; he returned just a little over an hour after his 60m run to take down the Nigerian Indoor 200m Record in a sizzling World Lead (WL), PB and SR of 20.08s, a time that elevated him to 3rd all-time behind Frankie Fredericks’ 19.92s and Elijah Hall-Thompson’s 20.02s.
He broke the record he set last year on the same track in Lubbock by exactly a tenth while his indoor PB is now faster than his outdoor time of 20.13s. In full scope, the Junior Red Raider was the highest point scorer at the Championships with 20 points while his school, Texas Tech emerged overall winners by 70 points.
Raymond Ekevwo was another man in action but at the SEC Indoor Championships. Having switched to study with the Gators in Florida, he clocked a new Personal Best of 6.67s in the 60m prelims and then improved his time to 6.66s to finish 6th in a quality final, one that fielded Grant Holloway and Hakim Sani Brown who both finished 1st and 2nd in 6.54s and 6.60s (PB) respectively.
Mercy Abire who is now competing for and studying at LSU set an indoor PB of 6.26m to finish 4th in the women’s Long Jump at the SEC Indoor Championships, while Bashiru Abdullahi who ran a 60mH PB of 7.75s earlier this year in Alburquerque, finished 2nd in the event, timed 7.90s at the MPSF Indoor Championships after running 7.88s in the prelims.
