Divine Oduduru, the man of the moment again provided eye-catching performances at the Big-12 Championships, the best of them coming from the men’s 100m final race on Sunday.
He was the favourite for the title, being the World Leader in the event and he left no stone unturned as at the sound of the starter’s gun, he sped away, leaving the field in his wake to finish in a fast 9.99s clocking with a wind reading of 0.3m/s.
Having taken down 10 seconds last month, it was expected for him to dominate the final, also putting into consideration the ease with which he ran 10.11s to make the final.
Oduduru, the 2018 NCAA 200m Champion, had run a storming leg for his school, Texas Tech, helping alongside his teammates Andrew Hudson, Keion Sutton and Jacolby Shelton, to set a new School Record (SR) of 38.83s to take the 4x100m title, a new Big-12 Record to say the least.
His time in the 100m final takes down the Big-12 Record held by Prezel Hardy Jr. at 10.03s (set in 2012), and also doubles as the Stadium Record, taking down a long-term one held by John Garrison since 1976, pegged at 10.04s.
This makes Divine Oduduru the first man to break 10s in the 100m at the Big-12 Championships and it looks like the Ughelli-born is settling well under the landmark 10 seconds.
His 9.99s mark has also earned him a qualification spot ahead of next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, making him the second male sprinter to do so after Raymond Ekevwo raced to a Personal Best (PB) of 10.02s the previous day while competing at the SEC Championships.
