The US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Tuesday named Nigerian track sensation Favour Ofili the National Athlete of the week.
The lofty honor is coming three days after the 19-year -old broke the Collegiate Record in the 200 meters dash at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic 2022.
Apart from becoming the first collegiate athlete to ever go sub 22 seconds, Ofili broke Blessing Okagbare’s 200 meters National Record of 22.04 seconds, which she set in 2018.
A three-time U-20 world medalist, Ofili came into last weekend’s Tom Jones Memorial Meet in Gainesville, Florida, with a career-best of 22.23 in the 200 meters that she ran at the 2021 IAAF U20 World Championships to secure a bronze medal.
In what was her first outdoor 200-meter race since that meet in August of 2021, Ofili blazed around half the track in a collegiate record-setting time of 21.96 seconds; it’s also a 2022 world lead and the first Nigerian woman to break 22 seconds in the 200m.
In the LSU record book, Ofili surpassed former record holder, Dawn Sowell, who claimed a career-best readout of 22.04 while competing for LSU back in 1989. The previous collegiate record belonged to Florida’s Kyra Jefferson who ran a 22.02 back in 2017 at the NCAA Championships.
from Monica Iheakam
