Where is Onwuzurike as 2024 NCAA outdoor 200m finalist, Uganda’s Orogot set to make Diamond League debut in Paris?

This will be the question agitating the minds of Nigerians following the news that Uganda’s Tarsis Gracious Orogot who finished fourth in the 200m dash at the U20 World Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in 2021, an event Nigeria’s Udodi Onwuzurike won, is going to make his Diamond League debut at the meeting de Paris on Sunday.

The University of Alabama track and field student-athlete supplanted Onwuzurike as the third fastest 200m runner in American collegiate history in May when he ran 19.75 to win the half lap event at the 2024 SEC Outdoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida thereby pushing the Nigerian who ran 19.76 last year June at the NCAA Division 1 final in Austin, Texas to fourth.

Orogot is however behind another Nigerian, Divine Oduduru whose 19.73 run also in Austin, Texas in June 2019 is bettered only by the 19.69 Walter Dix ran in May 2007 in Gainesville, Florida.

While many expected Onwuzurike to have made his Diamond League debut this year, it is the Ugandan, twice 200m semifinalist at the World Athletics Championships that will be doing so in Paris.

Onwuzurike was one of just 20 men to break 20 seconds in the 200m event last year and ended up as the fourth fastest after storming to a 19.76 lifetime best on his way to winning the 200m event at the 2023 NCAA outdoor championships.

The 21 year old Nigerian has certainly done enough to deserve a lane in athletics’ premier one-day meeting series will hold.