2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships 100m Final: All Eyes On Oghenebrume, Ashe and Onwuzurike

All eyes will be on the Nigerian trio of Udodi Onwuzurike, Godson Oghenebrume and Favour Ashe in Friday night’s men’s 100m final on Day 3 of the 2023 NCAA
outdoor track and field championships at the Mike Myers stadium in Austin, Texas.

For the first time in recent NCAA history, three Nigerians will be competing in the final of the blue ribband event.

Five actually qualified to run in the championships but the duo of Karlington Anunagba and Alaba Akintola failed to speed beyond the semifinals.

One out of the trio of Onwuzurike, Oghenebrume and Ashe will be seeking to make history as the third Nigerian man to win the 100m title in the history of the
championships after Olopade Adeniken (1992) and Divine Oduduru (2019).

Interestingly, the duo of Adeniken and Oduduru achieved their 100m wins at the Mike Myers stadium in Austin, Texas, venue of this year’s edition and it is
looking increasingly likely that it will be another gold harvesting ground for Nigerian sprinters.

Onwuzurike, the former World U20 200m champion is the one out of the three gunning for a sprint double and has been drawn in lane after running 10.04 in the
semifinals to qualify for Friday’s final.

The 20 year old holds a personal season and lifetime best of 9.92 which makes him the fastest Nigerian in the event so far this year and could spring a
surprise if he repeats the 9.92 that fetched him the ticket to these championships at the NCAA Division I West First Rounds event in Sacramento, California.

Onwuzurike will be bidding for his first NCAA outdoor championships title after dropping out at the semifinal stage last year.

Also bidding to make the podium and win his first NCAA championships title is Oghenebrume, the second fastest Nigerian so far this year and the second
fastest qualifier (9.93) for Friday night’s final. The 20 year old has been drawn in lane six.

Drawn in lane four, Auburn University’s Ashe was a silver medal winner in the event last year on his debut and looked good in the semifinal where he ran a
new 9.96 lifetime best.

The Nigerian trio will obviously face the challenge of University of Florida’s Pjai Austin who ran the fastest time (9.89) in the semifinals.

Both Ogehenebrume and Ashe will be confronting a familiar foe they both got the better of at the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana last month.

Oghenebrume ran 10.04 to win the race ahead of Ashe who came in second in 10.08 while Austin ran 10.28 to finish eighth.

A Nigerian sweep of the medals is not ruled out.