Nigeria’s Tima Godbless delivered a jaw-dropping performance at the NCAA East Preliminaries in Florida on Thursday, clocking a massive personal best of 10.91 seconds (1.2 m/s) to win her 100m heat — the fastest time in the world this year.
The 19-year-old Louisiana State University athlete bettered Jamaica’s Tia Clayton’s world lead of 10.92s set at the Doha Diamond League earlier this month.
It is the first time in her career she is breaking the 11-second barrier. With the performance, she becomes the fourth fastest Nigerian woman of all time, behind only Blessing Okagbare (10.79s), Rosemary Chukwuma (10.88s), and Glory Alozie (10.90s). She also becomes only the eighth Nigerian woman to break 11 seconds.
She also joins the rich LSU sub-11s club as the joint fourth, behind Sha’Carri Richardson (10.75s), Dawn Sowell (10.78s), Aleia Hobbs (10.85s) and tied with Brianna Lyston. Others who have run sub-11s for LSU are D’Andre Hill (10.92s), Favour Ofili (10.93s), Mikiah Brisco and Kimberlyn Duncan both 10.96s.
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Godbless also qualified in the 200m, finishing second in her heat in the a time of 22.80s, same as the first, Jayla Jamison.
Her schoolmate, Ella Onojuvwevwo, followed up with a dominant run of her own in the 400m, cruising to victory in her heat in a time of 51.25s to finish ahead of American athlete Zaya Akins, who ran 51.56s. Ella’s time was the third fastest overall across all six heats.
Nigeria will have six women in the 400m quarterfinals on Saturday. Esther Elo Joseph ran 51.76s to finish second in her heat and advance. Joy Nwokike clocked a huge personal best of 52.39s to place third and also go through. Osarentin Usenbor qualified with a time of 52.67s in her own heat, while Onyah Favour ran a massive PB of 51.93s — dropping over 1.5 seconds from her season’s best — to book her spot in the next round. Opeyemi Deborah Oke ran 52.22s to finish third in her heat and also made it through.
In the 100m, Elo Blessing Okpah ran a new PB of 11.19s (1.8) to finish second in her heat. Precious Nzeakor, in the same race, also ran a lifetime best of 11.24s to advance. Fore Abinusawa clocked 11.34s to finish third in her own section and qualify. Faith Okwose narrowly missed out after running 11.38s.
In the 100m hurdles, UCF’s Adaobi Tabugbo won her heat in 13.09s, despite a strong -1.8m/s headwind. Her schoolmate, Ese Awusa, ran a big PB of 13.18s to finish third in her section and advance to the next round.
There was another standout Nigerian performance in the 800m, as Ramat Jimoh won her heat in a new personal best of 2:03.45, improving on her own Nigerian-leading time. She finished just ahead of Norway’s Nora Haugen (2:03.48) and Kenya’s Judy Kosgei (2:03.59). Jimoh will also compete in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
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