‘I’d just love to compete in the Olympics for Great Britain, run the 100m flat, the 200m flat, and the relays,’ says Divine Iheme

Any hopes the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, may be harbouring of having emerging sprint sensation, Divine Iheme to compete for Nigeria have been extinguished by the 15-year-old himself.

‘I’d just love to compete in the Olympics for Great Britain, run the 100m flat, the 200m flat, and the relays,’ Iheme said in an interview with The Telegraph.

The sprinter, born to two former Nigeria internationals, Innocent and Nkiriuka Iheme, has been the revelation of sort after scorching to an incredible 10.30 over the 100m event at the age of 14.

The time is faster than the 10.57 Usain Bolt ran at that age, and also almost a second faster than Noah Lyles at the same age. It is the fastest in history by a 15-year-old.

His time would also have placed him third in the British men’s 100m championship last summer and been quick enough to reach an Olympic final as recently as 1996 (10.34 was entry standard).

In January, Divine also set a world all-time best in the 60m when he ran 6.71 to surpass the 6.91 record set by American sprinter J-Mee Samuels in March 2002.

All eyes will be on the 15 year old this weekend when he files out at the British Indoor Under-17 Championship on Saturday.

Divine’s mother, Nkiruika, tells The Telegraph her son was born to run.

‘Even when he was in my tummy, he was fast. I was, ‘Calm down’. The kicking! Oh my god! When he was young, you couldn’t open the door because he would run out. We were always, ‘Close the door, close the gate’. Divine didn’t crawl. He just stood and then he walked…,’ said the proud mother who reveals her son is a workaholic event at that age.

‘He loves running so, so much. He doesn’t want to miss his training so, if he doesn’t do his homework, it’s ‘no training’. The language we use is, ‘no pain, no gain’ or ‘pain now, play later’. Some children are just in the house playing games.’

Nkiruka believes her son could go ‘a lot’ faster this year but does not to put the 15 year old under unnecessary pressure.

‘Let’s watch and see. We cannot say now. He’s not in competition with anybody – he is just enjoying his training. If something comes, ‘Wow’. If not, ‘OK’. At the moment I don’t want to put pressure on him. He is going to do well,’ said Nkiruka.