Nigeria’s undisputed queen of the track, Blessing Okagbare and 2019 NCAA double sprint king, Divine Oduduru were impressive Friday at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational held at the University of Florida.
Okagbare raced home third in 22.66 seconds over the half lap behind the trio of Sha’Carri Richardson (20.11) and Lynna Irby (20.57).
The time, a personal season’s best is the fastest time returned by a Nigerian so far this year, bettering by three hundredth of a second the 22.69 Favour Ofili ran early this month while Grace Nzube Nwokocha is third on the Nigerian top list for 2021 with her first ever sub-23 seconds run (22.79) at the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival.
Okagbare, it would be recalled opened her outdoor season campaign with a 53.21 seconds personal best over the 400m last month at the Ansin Sports Complex in Hollywood.
In the men’s version, Oduduru ran 20.46 seconds to place fifth at the same event.
It was the first race of the outdoor season for the Nigerian who ran inside 20 seconds five times in 2019 including his scorching 19.73 seconds finish to win the NCAA title and set a new Nigerian record.
Oduduru’s 20.46 seconds finish in Florida on Friday is the fastest time by a Nigerian over the half lap so far this term, supplanting the 20.51 seconds personal best returned by Alaba Akintola to win the event’s title at the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival last week in Benin City.