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With a lot of outstanding performances by Nigerian athletes last week, here are the Top 5 best performers.
As the season becomes more competitive with each new week, Nigerian athletes are also rising to the occasion, bettering their performances and feats each time they step out in a meet.
This past week was particularly eventful, having a World Championships automatic qualification standard, a National Record (NR), New School Records from NCAA athletes, and several impressive Personal Best (PB) performances.
With several significant achievements worthy of mention, here's a list of the Top 5 Nigerian athletes' best performers for the outgoing week.
1 - Ruth Usoro
Nobody envisaged Ruth Usoro making her season debut with a massive Personal Best (PB) and world lead of 6.87m to win the long jump final at the Texas Tech Open and Multis.
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She did that plus the mark has more feats attached to it. Firstly, it surpassed the World Championships automatic qualifying standard of 6.85m, meaning she's the second Nigerian jumper after Ese Brume to qualify for the prestigious championship in Budapest.
Secondly, it became the second farthest indoor jump by an African long jumper in history, behind the African Record (AR) of 6.97m by Chioma Ajunwa and ahead of Brume's 6.85m attained at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, where she won a Silver medal.
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With Usoro being a triple jumper as well, she can now afford to focus on hitting the event's qualifying standard, making it back-to-back feats of being Nigeria's first athlete in history to qualify and compete at both events at the World Championships.
2 - Edose Ibadin
Nigerian Record (NR) holder in the 800m Edose Ibadin made an impressive start to the season, racing to 1000m NR of 2:20.34 to finish second in the event.
Ibadin has been off competing actively in the athletics scene for over a year, so coming back with this record-breaking form is very impressive.
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After his performance, he took to his Twitter handle writing, "Finna rewrite the whole record book in middle-distance for Nigeria."
Perhaps he's given hints of expecting more from him this season.
3 - Rosemary Chukwuma
The Texas Tech junior athlete broke her School Record (SR) for the second time this season and improved her rank on the world's top list.
Chukwuma erased her own Personal Best (PB), and SR of 7.11s set two weeks ago, with a new time of 7.09s to win the 60m final at the Texas Tech Open and Multis.
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Her time is now No. 5 on the all-time Nigerian indoor list and tied for seventh all-time in Africa.
4 - Alaba Akintola
Another in-form sprinter for his school Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), Akintola, blazed to a brilliant PB and SR of 20.63s to finish second in the 200m final at the New Mexico Team Open.
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His performance made him the first Nigerian male athlete to go sub-21s this season, the fastest time in the C-USA, and No. 6 on the NCAA top list this year.
5 - Udodi Onwuzuruike
Onwuzuruike made his season debut at the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas by breaking his 60m SR twice on the same day.
The Stanford University sophomore student first equaled his SR of 6.67s to win his qualifying heat, then lowered it to 6.63s in the final despite stumbling at the start of the race.
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He has now tied or broken the SR eight times so far in the 60m, 100m, and 200m outdoors, making him the best sprinter in the school's history.
Also, his time is No. 3 in Nigeria behind Favour Ashe (6.55s) and Akintola (6.59s).
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