Amusan/Ofili and Enekwechi end 2024 with Nigeria’s biggest performances in track and field!
Tobi Amusan may have failed to make it to her second straight Olympics 100m hurdles final but the 27-year-old has done enough to give a performance only rivalled by Favour Ofili as the biggest by a Nigerian woman in 2024.
The world 100m hurdles record holder’s 12.40 run at the track and field meeting in Jamaica in May was the biggest performance by a Nigerian woman until Ofili raced to a 22.05 personal season’s best to place second in one of the 200m semifinals at the Paris 2024 Olympics
That time, using the World Athletics Scoring Tables of Athletics, is equivalent to the 12.40 Amusan ran in the high hurdles in May.
Rosemary Chukwuma’s 10.88 run that makes her the second fastest Nigerian in the women’s 100m all-time list ranks second while Ruth Usoro, who turned 27 on October 8, is third with the 6.87m lifetime best she jumped in February.
For the men, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi’s 21.91m lifetime best setting put (throw) at the Prefontaine Diamond League meeting in Oregon, USA in May was the icing on the cake of an impressive season for the 31 year old who made it all the way to final of the event at the Olympics in Paris.
That mark, which moves him closer to becoming the first Nigerian man to hit the 22m mark is the biggest performance by a Nigerian man this year.
Ezekiel Nathaniel came close to making history as the first Nigerian man to run inside 48 seconds in the 400m hurdles but the clocked stopped at 48.00 for him in the final of the event at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship held in May at the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium in Waco, Texas.
That performance is bettered only by the 21.91 Enekwechi threw that same month but at a different event in the same country, USA.
In third is the 9.94 Favour Ashe ran in May to improve his lifetime best from the 9.96 he ran a year earlier.
The 22-year-old could not repeat the mark which could have gotten him a lane in the final of the 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
