Ofili to run 150m at adidas Atlanta City Games; Brume, Onwuzurike also listed
Favour Ofili tops the list of Nigerian athletes backed by kits and equipment company, adidas that will compete at the adidas Atlanta City Games on May 18. The 21 year old has been listed to run in the rarely run 150m event.
The former Louisiana State University, LSU, student will compete against Daryll Neita of Great Britain and the American trio of Candace Hill, Talitha Diggs and Tamari Davis.
Ofili has not officially raced in the 150m event but could obliterate the African records set by Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith in the event in 2018 and 2020. The Ivorian ran 16.60 to set the record for a straight 150m event and 16.99 for bend.
The Nigerian is the second fastest African over another rarely run event, the 300m following her blistering, 35.99 run over the distance at the New Balance Grand Prix in February in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.
Meanwhile, Ese Brume will finally return to action at the Games after missing the Suzhou Diamond league meeting in China over a reported visa issue.
The African record holder (7.17m) has not competed since she jumped a wind-aided 6.92m to win the African Games title in March in Accra, Ghana.
Brume will have the chance to seal her qualification for the Paris Olympics in Atlanta if she jumps just 2 centimetres more than the 6.84m she has jumped this year. The entry standard to Paris in 6.86m.
She is bidding to compete in her third Olympics after making her debut in 2016.
Udodi Onwuzurike will also be in action at the Games and will go head to head with his African brother, Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya and USA’s Erriyon Knighton, the fifth fastest ever over distance at 19.49. The Nigerian holds a lifetime best of 19.76 in the event.
Onwuzurike, 21, has competed twice over the distance this season. He opened his season with a 20.13 performance at the PURE Athletics Elite Invitational in Clermont, Florida on April 20 and ran 20.61 eight days later at the Bermuda Grand Prix in Devonshire, Bermuda.
