Can Udodi Onwuzurike punch Tokyo 25 World Championships ticket in Zurich?
Nigerian holds mixed head-to-head record against 200m foes at Diamond League Final
Former World U20 200m champion, Udodi Onwuzurike could punch his World Athletics Championship ticket at Thursday’s Diamond League final in Zurich if he succeeds in making history as the first Nigerian man, and second overall, to win a Diamond League Trophy.
The 22 year old is competing in the 200m final following his third place finish at his Diamond League debut in Brussels, Belgium last week, which fortuitously, landed him in the final of the 15-leg, athletics’ elite one day meeting series, following the withdrawals by those who made the top seven list of qualifiers and those after them in the standings.
The Nigerian has now been presented with the opportunity to fight for the Tokyo 25 ticket after he fell short of picking an automatic qualification slot at the 2025 Meeting voor Mon, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger in Leuven, Belgium on August 16, 2025.
He ran 20.17, just 0.01 seconds shy of the 20.16 entry standard set by World Athletics.
He is also not in the reckoning via his World rankings position (87th) with the last qualifier via that route, Australia’s Calab Law ranked 50th.
The only road left to take if he wants to travel to Tokyo is through the Wild Card route reserved for a Diamond League Trophy winner.
Now, the second fastest Nigerian ever over the half lap (19.76) has been given another chance but he will need to speed past World and Olympic champions to sprint to Tokyo for what would be his second World Championships appearance after making his debut in Eugene, Oregon in 2022.
Onwuzurike has Olympic 200m champion, Letsile Tebogo and World champion, Noah Lyles to contend with. He has a 1-0 head to head win over Tebogo, dating back to the final of the World U20 final in Nairobi, Kenya in August 2021 but a 0-1 record against Lyles.
The Nigerian has a 1-2 record against reigning African double sprint champion and twice Olympic 200m finalist, Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, 1-0 won over Tyree King of the USA, 4-1 head-to-head record against Gregory Robert, also of the USA, and a 0-1 record against Dominican Republic’s Ogando Alexander following the latter’s win in Brussels on August 22.
