Kelechi Christian

Born on March 26, 1999, Kelechi Christian is the African U-20 Champion in the women’s 100m and Bronze medallist in the 200m from the 2017 African U20 Championships held in Tlemcen, Algeria.

Although Nigeria was unable to send a team to the event, it’s interesting to note that Nigerian-born Christian, while representing Zimbabwe, stormed to the 100m title in Algeria after crossing the line in 12.08s.

She bounced back into reckoning in the 200m despite being left behind at the starting line because she didn’t hear the gun go off. That notwithstanding, she dug deep to finish 3rd in the race, and then ran the second leg for Zimbabwe in the 4x100m, with the team eventually clinching Silver, which means she left the championships with three medals: GOLD, Silver and Bronze.

Christian was born in Aba, Abia State in Nigeria, and moved to Zimbabwe with her family when she was just 10. While in Zimbabwe, she struck a romance with Athletics and began to dominate competitions in her secondary school, steadily climbing up the ladder to get noticed by the Zimbabwean Athletics Federation.

Christian relocated back to Nigeria after the 2017 African U20 Championships and reached out to Making of Champions (MoC) in 2018, having been convinced that the club could help take her to the next level in her career.

She was invited for a Trial by MoC Head Coach Deji Aliu, after which she relocated to Lagos to face the next phase of her career as a member of MoC Track Club. Christian was unveiled as an MoC Athlete in March 2019 and is currently studying Human Kinetics at the University of Lagos.

Christian opened her 2019 season at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All-Comers meeting in Ijebu-Ode and then went on to race at the 2nd MoC Grand Prix. She set a new Personal Best (PB) in the 200m at the African Games Trials in Abuja while racing in the A Final where she placed 5th with a time of 24.44s. While making her first appearance at the National Championships, she equalled her 100m PB of 11.96s in the semis of the 100m.

Based on her height, Christian is expected to give her rivals a good run for their money and may be another Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the making!