Seeing as there wasn’t any outdoor competition in over a year, the collegiate outdoor season has kicked off with impressive showings by Nigerian athletes and with Personal Bests to show for it in various events.
Rosemary Chukwuma was a standout performer at the WT Spring Classic in Texas where she clocked a new Personal Best (PB) of 11.42s to win the women’s 100m (1.9m/s), taking 0.02s off her previous mark.
In that same race, 400m Hurdler Amaka Ogoegbunam placed 5th in a time of 11.82s, just outside her PB and in only her second race in almost 4 years, whilst Chukwuma’s teammate Success Umukoro improved her PB with a 11.90s clocking for 6th.
At the Auburn Tiger Track Classic in Alabama, quarter-miler Knowledge Omovoh dropped a new Personal Best (PB) of 11.55s to finish 3rd in the women’s 100m (0.1m/s). The Nigerian whose first time it was under 12 seconds, had closed out her indoor campaign nicely with a total PB of 53.17s over 400m and could go faster as the season progresses.
The race was taken by Maia McCoy who clocked 11.35s, ahead of Brandee Presley with 11.41s.
Making her NCAA debut for Boise State University (BSU), Anita Taviore kicked off her season, competing at the UNLV Spring Invitational & Sheila Tarr-Smith Multis where she clocked a time of 23.32s for 2nd in the women’s 200m and behind Cassondra Hall who returned 23.08s.
Taviore’s time would have been a PB, but for the excessive tailwind reading of 3.8m/s.
Amarachukwu Obi was another Nigerian athlete to have made their NCAA debut over the weekend, and this she did with a win, taking the women’s 200m at the Auburn Track Classic in a time of 23.70s (3.0). She finished ahead of Daija Lampkin and Destiny Charles, winners of section 1 in 23.77s.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Ineh swept to double wins at the Carey Challenge in Hattiesburg, reaching a substantial 7.60m (-1.3) to take the men’s Long Jump, a PB for him, whilst doubling up with his main event, the Triple Jump where he leapt 15.89m (1.4).
On the infield, Kelechi Nwanaga who is newly transferred from UMBC to FSU, returned back with a win at the USF Invitational in Tampa where she landed a mark of 52.50m, inspiring a 1-2-3 sweep for the Noles.
Her teammates, Stella Weinberg and Sara Zabarino were not afar off as the both followed with 49.35m and 48.49m respectively.
