Erhire flies to new Nigerian Championships record to win High Jump gold

Omamuyovwi Best Erhire soared highest to clear a new lifetime best height of 2.25m to win the high jump title at the Nigerian Track and Field Championships on Sunday in Benin city, Edo state.

The 21 year old’s height is not just a personal best but also a Championships record, breaking the 2.20m record first set by Anthony Idiata in 1996 and equaled by Erhire and Mike Edwards.

The new mark is an improvement on the 2.23m lifetime best he first set in 2022 and repeated in 2023.

It was his first title since he cleared 2.12m to win in Kaduna in 2019. He lost on countback to Edwards in 2021 at the Yaba College of Technology Sports complex, Yabatech in Lagos albeit both cleared 2.20m in the final.

Erhire will however not be going to the Olympics as he is still eight centimetres short of the 2.33m entry standard set for the Olympics by World Athletics.

Also on the final day of competition, it wan an anti-climax in the men and women’s 200m as the pre-race favourites failed to start thereby denying the crowd and the following public the chance to see the duo of Udodi Onwuzurike and Rosemary Chukwuma win their first 200m titles and possibly break the long standing championships records held by Francis Obikwelu (20.45 in 1997) and mercy Nku (22.58 in 1999).

Instead, it was Sunday Israel Okon that caused a huge upset for the men, running a new 20.80 lifetime best to beat Alaba Akintola (20.81) and Consider Ekanem (20.88) to the title.
For the women, Precious Nzeakor also ran a new 23.14 personal ahead of Olayinka Olajide (23.17) and Ella Onojuvwevwo (23.73) to win.