Nigerian Record holder in the women’s 400m Hurdles Ajoke Odumosu is set to be inducted into the University of South Alabama Athletics Hall of Fame at an on-campus ceremony to be held on Saturday, November 11th.
Odumosu, along with David Doss (Baseball) and Viktoria Stoklasova (Tennis), belong to the 2017 class of inductees of the institution. The trio will also be recognized on the Ladd-Peebles Stadium field at halftime of South Alabama’s game against Arkansas State later that day.
The Nigerian is the school record holder in the women’s 400m (Indoor and Outdoor), and the 400m Hurdles (outdoor). Odumosu amongst other achievements, claimed eight individual titles for South Alabama at the Sun Belt Conference Indoor and Outdoor Championships, and was also listed on to the league’s 30th Anniversary All-Time Women’s Outdoor Athletics Team.
Odumosu is a five-time Nigerian Champion who represented the country at four IAAF World Championships starting with Osaka 2007. She also competed at the Beijing Olympics and London Games, getting to the final of the women’s 400m Hurdles in the latter where she bettered her time to set a new Nigerian Record of 54.40s. She emerged Commonwealth Games Champion in 2010 and also scooped Silver at the IAAF Continental Cup that same year.
The hurdler won Bronze at her first outing at the All-Africa Games in Algiers, then upgraded to GOLD four years later in Maputo. She then settled for Silver behind teammate Amaka Ogoegbunam at the 2015 edition of the Games in Brazzaville. Odumosu also struck GOLD in the 400m Hurdles at the 2008 and 2012 African Championships, and won Silver in 2010.
In recent years, the likes of Clement Chukwu (Eastern Michigan University, 2011), Pat Itanyi (University of West Virginia, 2011) and Blessing Okagbare (University of Texas El Paso, 2017) were also inducted into the Hall of Fame of their respective alma maters.
