Six Nigerian athletes record triumphant finish in Conference Championships as indoor season concludes
(Made In Africa Sport) – Conference Championships marked the beginning of the close of the regular indoor season, and across the collegiate circuit over the weekend, many conferences held theirs in preparation for the Nationals, which will be held in two weeks at The Track at New Balance in Boston.
Rosemary Chukwuma, Temitope Adeshina, Kanyinsola Ajayi, Stephen Eloji, Emmanuel Oche, and Joseph Oreva emerged victorious in their respective events and were crowned conference champions.
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Rosemary Chukwuma, a senior from Texas Tech, had the fastest qualifying time of 7.18 seconds in the women’s 60m dash at the Big 12 Championships held in Lubbock, Texas. Her teammate, Success Umukoro, also ran an impressive 7.23s for an automatic qualification to the final.
Later, Chukwuma won the final in 7.23 seconds and was crowned the conference champion, while leading her institution to a clean sweep of the event. Umukoro, who is also Nigerian, won the bronze medal in 7.28 seconds, behind Alyssa Colbert who finished second with a time of 7.26 seconds. The Texas Tech duo of Chukwuma and Umukoro continued their great form, finishing in third and fourth place with times of 22.90s and 23.21s, respectively, in the 200m sectioned final.
During this meet, the national record holder for the 400-metre hurdles and recent collegiate record holder for the 600 yards from Baylor University finished third and won a bronze medal in the men’s 400-metre dash with a time of 45.73 seconds.
He had previously come close to breaking the African indoor record of 45.31 seconds at the Clemson Invite with a time of 45.34 seconds. Texas Tech’s Temitope Adeshina, the African record-holder in the women’s high jump, clinched an impressive victory in the event by clearing 1.90 metres and earning 10 points for her school.
Meanwhile, her teammate Omamuyovwi Ehire secured second place in the high jump with a remarkable jump of 2.23 metres. He also finished fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 15.54 metres. Nigeria’s second-fastest hurdler this season, Tabugbo Adabobi, secured a third-place victory of 8.22 seconds in the 60-metre hurdles after smashing her personal record in the prelims to 8.13 seconds.
SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
Less than three months after arriving in college, Kanyinsola Ajayi clinched his first conference title at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships in Arkansas, equalling his personal best of 6.60 seconds in the men’s 60-metre dash final.
The Auburn University freshman beat Wanya Mccoy of Florida Gators who settled for silver in 6.63 seconds, and Louisiana State University (LSU) sophomore, Myles Thomas in 6.64 seconds. The 2023 Nigeria fastest man over 100 metres, Godson Oghenebrume, got disqualified in the heat for a false start.
Samuel Ogazi, who currently holds the African U20 record in the men’s 400m, narrowly qualified for the final after lowering his record to 46.27 seconds for qualification. He returned 46.56 seconds for a fifth-place finish in the final.
However, Ella Onojuvwevwo missed out on the final after ranking ninth in the preliminaries with a time of 52.47 seconds on the women’s side.
C-USA CHAMPIONSHIPS
During the Conference-USA Championships, Stephen Eloji equalled the 2019 Meet Record (MR) set by Bashiru Abdullahi in the 60-metre hurdles final, thereby winning the gold medal with a time of 7.77 seconds.
Although Eloji also participated in the 200 metres, he could not advance to the next round after recording a time of 21.83 seconds in the preliminary. In addition, two freshmen from the University of Texas El Paso, Rejoice Sule and Princess Uche, were able to secure medals in their respective events. Sule placed third in the women’s 200 metres with a time of 23.44 seconds.
However, she missed out on a podium finish in the 60-metre dash final, finishing fourth with a time of 7.45 seconds. Uche, on the other hand, was awarded a silver medal after clocking a personal best of 54.42 seconds in the 400-metre section finals.
Emmanuel Oche from VCU won the men’s 60-metre dash final at the Atlantic 10 Conference with a time of 6.73 seconds. Joseph Oreva got the best of the day and won the men’s long jump at the Lone Star Indoor Championships with 7.35m.
Goodness Iredia from the University of South Florida jumped 15.76m in the triple jump at the AAC, while Chidozie Kalu leapt a personal best of 15.86m and won a bronze medal at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Dubem Amene settled for bronze in the Big 10 Conference Championships with a time of 46.34 seconds.
