Kanyinsola Ajayi has announced himself as one of Nigeria’s fastest men ever, joining the club of sub-10s runners in the country.
Running in his outdoor season opener at the Tom Jones Memorial in Florida, the Auburn University sprinter clocked a stunning 9.96s (1.9) to win the men’s 100m—his first time under 10 seconds.
The time is a massive Personal Best (PB) for Ajayi and automatically qualifies him for the World Athletics Championships later this year. It also makes him the 10th fastest Nigerian man of all time and the 15th Nigerian sprinter in history to dip below the 10-second mark.
Ajayi powered past a strong field that included LSU’s Jelani Watkins, who ran 10.03s, and T’Mars McCallum, who followed in 10.04s.
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He now joins a prestigious list of sub-10 Nigerian sprinters that includes Olusoji Fasuba, Seun Ogunkoya, Deji Aliu, Davidson Ezinwa, Divine Oduduru, Favour Ashe, Godson Brume, Enoch Adegoke, Olapade Adeniken, Raymond Ekevwo, Uchenna Emedolu, Francis Obikwelu, Daniel Effiong and Udodi Onwuzurike,
Ajayi wasn’t the only Nigerian making headlines in Florida, in another final, Israel Okon delivered a strong performance in his outdoor debut for Auburn, clocking a new PB of 10.07s (-0.6) to win comfortably ahead of Ohio State’s Nazzio John, who finished in 10.30s.
On the women’s side, Tima Godbless continued her fine form with a win in the 100m, running 11.14s (-2.4) to beat Kaila Jackson who clocked 11.16s.
There were more solid performances from Nigerian women as the Tennessee duo of Faith Okwose and Elo Blessing Okpah went 1-2 in their heat, finishing in 11.45s (0.4) and 11.49s respectively. Blessing Ogundiran also clocked 11.44s in her heat, finishing fourth.
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