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By Anthony Nlebem.
Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili continued her brilliant 2023 season as she ran a new 22.36secs to win the women’s 200m heat event at the Tiger Paw Invitational, which ended on Saturday in South Carolina, United States.
The Louisiana State University student surpassed her Indoor Personal Best and 200m African Record of 22.46secs.
The time is a new Nigerian Record, world lead, NCAA lead, LSU record, Facility Record and the third fastest time in NCAA history.
Ofili kicked off her 2023 indoor season two weeks ago as she came first in 22.55secs in the women’s 200m heat at the University of New Mexico Open Classic. And last week, she clocked 22.59secs, which was still in the top five fastest times in the world this year.
Also at the Tiger Paw Invitational, she clocked a brilliant PB of 7.15secs to finish second in the 60m final.
Ofili now owns the top seven fastest times by an African indoor 200m female runner in history, with her progression reading thus — 22.75secs, 22.71secs, 22.61secs, 22.59secs, 22.52secs, 22.46secs, and 22.36secs.
The sprinter, a Louisiana State University student, had an outstanding 2022 season and was part of Nigeria’s 4x100m women’s relay side that won gold and set a new African record of 42.10secs at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
After running 22.46secs indoors in 2022, the 20-year-old Commonwealth gold medalist clocked a PB and NR of 21.96secs outdoors, becoming the first Nigerian and collegiate runner to go under the sub-22secs mark outdoors.
She was ranked 14th best after running new national records in the 200m indoors (22.46secs) and outdoor (21.96secs). The LSU student also got big scores for running to the 200m semis at the Oregon World Championships and also for winning the silver medal at the NCAA Outdoor championships (22.05secs) and the Commonwealth Games (22.30secs).
