Itshekiri gets second chance to race for African Games 100m gold

Reigning Nigeria 100m champion, Ushoritse Itshekiri will begin his bid for his first ever continental title when the 100m event of the 13th African Games
begin on Monday in Accra, the capital cit of Ghana.

The 26 year old, four time Nigeria champion won a bronze medal five years ago when he made his debut at the Games running 10.02 in the final Raymond Ekevwo
ran 9.96 seconds to in in Rabat, Morocco at the 12th edition of the Games.

That was the closest the closest the Delta state born athlete came to winning the gold but he will relish the chance to finally make it to the podium as
champion this time around, especially with the confirmed absence of reigning African and Commonwealth Games champion as well as record holder, Kenya’s
Ferdinand Omanyala and a few others who have broken 10 seconds over the distance.

Itshekiri has competed over the 50 and 60m distances prior to the Games, setting a 5.71 lifetime best in the 50m and 6.65 personal season’s best in the 60m
but knows he will need finally run inside 10 seconds for the first time in his career to stand a chance of winning the ultimate medal.

The Nigerian’s greatest competition could come from his fellow country man, Consider Ekanem who stormed to a 10.10 lifetime best and African lead.

Consider ran 10.16 seconds at the African games trials in Asaba, Delta state last month to prove his 10.10 seconds performance at the Dynamics Athletics meet
a month earlier in Lagos was not by happenstance.

Itshekiri and Consider will be looking to become the sixth Nigerian to win the blue ribband gold in Games history after Chidi Imoh (1987), Davidson Ezinwa
(1995), Deji Aliu (2003), Olusoji Fasuba ( 2007) and Ekevwo who won five years ago.

The duo will also be seeking to run inside 10 seconds for the first time in their career and could set their targets higher than even the 9.95 games record
set by Aliu in 2003 as they are also eager to secure the ticket to summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, France.