Nigeria’s Raymond Ekevwo secured a spot in the men’s 100m semifinals at the ongoing World Championships in Doha, finishing 2nd in his heat with a time of 10.14s (-0.8m/s) to become the only Nigerian athlete in the next round.
Lining up in heat 3 against Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, Ekevwo ran a good race from lane 8 finishing well, not afar off in 2nd place to ensure that he went through. Hughes won the race in 10.08s while Emmanuel Matadi of Liberia copped 3rd place in 10.19s.
Usheoritse Itsekiri in his own heat had a good start out of the blocks, momentarily leading a field that had Gatlin in it. The other competitors then came back hard as the Nigerian slid into 7th place, finishing in 10.46s. Justin Gatlin won the race in 10.06s (-0.8m/s) ahead of Andre de Grasse who clocked 10.13s while Adam Gemili ran 10.19s in 3rd.
Meanwhile, Divine Oduduru was a late withdrawal from heat 5 of men’s 100m, having a Did Not Start (DNS) after being registered to run. Coming to these Championships, Oduduru is the joint 2nd fastest man in the world this year with a Personal Best of 9.86s in the 100m.
Oduduru will most likely now compete in the 200m and 4x100m, with Ekevwo now shouldering Nigeria’s hopes in the 100m.
