At the just concluded NCAA championships in Austin Texas, several Nigerians stepped out and won either won laurels or bowed out of the Championships in fine fashion.
Leading the men’s results, Stanford Udodi Onwuzurike claimed gold in the men’s 200m finals clocking 19.84s after a 6th place finish in the 100m where he ran a brilliant 9.98s. Only three Africans Akani Simbine (9.93/19.95s), Divine Oduduru (9.94/19.76s) and Shaun Maswanganyi (9.99/19.93)
In a 100m finals that included three Nigerians,Godson Brume narrowly missed out on the gold medal as he finished second in the finals in a time of 9.90s missing out of the gold medal by 1 hundredths of second. Ashe Favour clocked 10.02s for 8th place. Meanwhile, Alaba Akintola and Karkington Anumba bowed out in the semifinals as both clocked 10.07s and 10.20s respectively.
In the one lap event, Bamidele Emmanuel distributed excellently to claim the win in a new personal best of 44.20s as Dubem Nwachukwu finished fifth in 44.92s. Dubem, a senior from Arizona State University had earlier clocked a Personal Best of 44.81s in the semifinal.
Dubem Amene who clocked a 46.70s in the qualifying rounds didn’t make it through to the finals.
Ezekiel Nathaniel won bronze for the men’s 400m hurdles in a season best performance of 48.50s improving on his fourth-place finish at the previous championships. He helped his team to a sixth-place finish in the 4x400m. His teammate, Nnamdi Chinecherem haurled his jav over 74m to claim bronze for Baylor university.
Heading to the fun track events, Godson Brume helped LSU to claim gold in the men’s 4×100m by virtue of a disqualification from Texas Tech in a staggering 38.05s.
On the women’s part, Rosemary Chukwuma despite qualifying for the 100m final with the second fastest time across all heats finished 6th in the 100m finals.
Favour Ofili didn’t advance to the finals of the women’s 200m as she clocked 22.93s in her semis but she helped her team to claim a bronze medal in the 4×100m in 42.54s
Imaobang Nse Uko competed in the women’s relays finishing 5th in the women’s 4×100m clocking 43.12s also ran a brilliant leg in the 4×400m.
Ashley Anunba threw 61.13m a new personal best in the women’s discuss event to claim silver while Adaobi Tabugbo and Dolita Awala-shaw competed for BYU in the 4x100m but they did not qualify for the final.
They were other athletes of Nigerian descent who did so well for their school in various events.
2x British 110m hurdles champion, Tade Ojora placed 4th in the 110mh with a new Personal Best (PB) of 13.29s while his sister, Temi, finished 6th in the Triple Jump with a leap of 13.66m.
Moforehan Abinusawa and Christiana Nwachukwu competed for University of Pennsylvania in the 4x400m as they finished 16th overall in the semifinal.
Ezinne Abba finished 7th in the women’s 100m clocking 11.07w but she was a member of the record-breaking squad that broke the NCAA 4x100m record in the heat with 41.55s and they went on to win the Gold in the final.
