Udo-Gabriel, Caleb, Olatunde storm into 60m final at NCAA Division 11 Indoor Championships

Joy Udo-Gabriel, Joshua Caleb and Olaolu Olatunde have qualified for the final of the 60n event at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships which started on Thursday at the Fall Creek Pavilion at Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

Udo-Gabriel ran 7.22 to win her heat and place second on the qualification list behind Alexis Brown who ran a new 7.18 meeting record.

The final will be run on Saturday.

For the men, Caleb and Olatunde also sealed spots in Saturday’s final.

Caleb ran 6.66 to win heat two to secure an automatic ticket to the final while Olatunde was third in heat three and managed to qualify as one of the none automatic qualifiers.

Caleb, 18, who stormed to a 6.57 lifetime best in January which is the fastest in the division pre-championship remains the athlete to beat in the final.

Meanwhile, Caleb and Jerry Jakpa are expected to be in 200m action on Friday. While Jakpa will run in the opening heat, Caleb will run in the fourth heat.

For the women, Blessing Akintoye will run in the fifth heat. On Thursday she secured a spot in the 400m final after running 54.12, the fifth fastest time in the qualifying heats.

The top eight fastest will advance to the final in both the men and women’s 200m.

Joseph Oreva who tops the long jump list with his 7.71 personal season’s best will compete in the final of the event also on Friday.