New Telegraph

Ofili dethrones Okagbare as national 200m record holder

Nigeria’s Favour Ofili has finally put to rest the ghost of her Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games miss after dethroning Blessing Okagbare as the fastest 200m runner in Nigeria with her impressive 21.96secs result recorded at the justconcluded Tom Jones Invitational in Gainesville, Florida.

Okagbare’s record of 22.04secs was set in 2018 and Ofili, who was one of the 10 Nigeria athletes stopped from competing at the last Olympics due to their inability to complete three Out of Competition Test, continued to live up to the challenge of stepping into Okagbare’s shoes.

 

Okagbare is presently serving out a 10-year ban for doping-related issues with almost no chance of a return to the tracks and at just 19 years, Ofili has shown great promise and many see her as the next world-beater from Nigeria.

She was the youngest Nigeria athlete at the 2019 WA World Championships in Doha where she represented the country at 16.

The Louisiana State University undergraduate was also at the African Games in Morocco the same year where she won a silver medal in the 400m. Apart from breaking Okagbare record, Ofili also broke Dawn Sowell’s school record of 22.04secs.

 

She is just the second African woman to go under 22secs in the half-lap event and her winning time is also a world leader for 2022 (the fastest in the event so far this year).

The only African woman to run faster than Ofili is the 2020 Olympic silver medalist Christine Mboma of Namibia, who has a personal-best time of 21.78sec

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