Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike has set a new 20.13 seconds championships record and also becomes the sixth Nigerian to qualify for the 200m final at the World Athletics U-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.
Onwuzurike’s objective at the event is to succeed Francis Obikwelu as the next Nigerian World U20 champion in the 200m and he is right on course.
The 18-year-old started on an impressive note, setting a new personal best of 20.47 seconds to win his first-round heat and qualify for the semi-final. In the semis, the high school graduate stormed to another personal best of 20.13 seconds, the fastest 200m time ever witnessed in the history of the championships and a new Nigerian U-20 record to qualify for Saturday’s final.
Standing between Onwuzurike and a second World U-20 200m gold 25 years after Obikwelu won in Sydney are two Africans, Bostwana’s reigning World U20 100m champion, Leslie Tebogo who ran a new 20.31 personal best to qualify for the final and Uganda’s Tarsis Orogot who scorched to a new 20.37 national record in the semifinal.
Interestingly, all Nigerian athletes who have made the final of the event ended up at the podium, starting with Olapade Adeniken who won a silver medal (20.88s) in 1988 in Sudbury, Canada.
He was followed by Davidson Ezinwa two years later in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He also won a silver medal (20.75s) to add to the 100m gold he won a few days earlier.
Deji Aliu followed in the right footsteps of his predecessors four years later in Lisbon, Portugal, running 20.88 seconds to win the silver medal. This was after he had annexed the 100m gold a few days earlier.
Then came Obikwelu who made history as the second man after Trinidad and Tobago’s Ato Boldon and the first African to complete a sprint double at the championships. He won both the 100m (10.21) and 200m (20.47) gold.
It took Nigeria eight years to produce a fifth medallist in the event in the form of Divine Oduduru whose wind-aided 20.25 seconds return also landed him on the podium as a silver medal winner. Onwuzrike will however feel it is the gold this time as he also attempts the 20.10-second African U20 record held by South Africa’s Clarence Munyai.
Saturday will not be about Onwuzurike alone as Favour Ofili will also take to the women’s 200m stage to attempt rewriting the Nigerian history books in the event 35 years after Falilat Ogunkoya wrote a golden chapter in Athens, Greece at the inaugural edition of the World Athletics U20 championships. It’s also a chance for her to put behind her the disappointment of being disqualified at the Tokyo Olympics.
18-year old Ofili ran the second-fastest time (20.37s) in the semifinal and was tagged one of the favourites for the gold medal when the athletes filed for the final on Saturday. The Nigerian has been drawn in lane five in the final, sandwiched by her two greatest adversaries, the Namibian duo of Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi.
Mboma, fresh from her surprise 200m silver medal win and a 21.81 African record run at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics early this month is drawn in the outside lane (six) to the Nigerian while her compatriot, Masilingi who raced to a new 20.19 seconds Championships record is drawn in lane four for what should be the greatest 200m race in the history of the championships.