Godbless, Onojuvwevwo to open NCAA outdoor campaign with 200m at Battle on the Bayou

The Nigerian duo of Tima Godbless and Ella Onojuvwevwo will open their 2025 NCAA outdoor campaign on Friday at the Battle on the Bayou at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.

Godbless and Onojuvwevwo will both be competing in the 200m event on Friday and have been drawn in different heats with the former running from lane 7 in the opening heat alongside Liberia’s Thelma Davies while the latter will run from lane five in the second of seven heats.

The two Nigerians had an impressive indoor campaign, running lifetime bests and qualifying for the NCAA Division 1 indoor championships final.

Godbless ran 7.08 to set a new personal best in the 60m event. It is the fastest time by a Nigerian over the distance since 2012 when Gloria Asumnu ran 7.07 and the third fastest in the Nigerian all-time list.

It is also the seventh fastest by a woman in the world this year.

The 20 year old will be hoping she can replicate that incredible indoor feat outdoors and may want to lay down a marker this Friday.

She holds a 22.56 lifetime best which she ran last year to move into the Nigerian top 10 all-time list and may be seeking to become the second Nigerian after Favour Ofili to break 22 seconds in the half lap event.

Onojuvwevwo was also impressive indoors as she set a new personal best of 23.11 in the 200m and 51.06 in the 400m indoors.

Outdoor she holds a 50.57 personal best in the full lap race.