Nigeia’s Alaba Akintola Sunday successfully defended his sprint double’s title at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships held at the UNT Track & Field Stadium in Greeley, Denton, Texas.
The 21 year old came to the championships as the defending 100m and 200m champion after he won the title last year at the Park West Athletics Complex in San Antonio, Texas, running a 10.04 lifetime best in the 100m and 20.36 in the 200m to win.
On Sunday, Akintola went close to equalling his 100m personal best but was a 100th of a second slower (10.05). It was however enough to help him retain the 100m title ahead of another Nigerian, Karlington Anunagba of North Texas University who ran 10.20 to place second.
In the 200m, Akintola was the undisputed king again, running 20.43 to win to successfully complete a spring double for the second straight season.
At the Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, California, former World U20 200m champion, Udodi Onwuzurike cold not fulfil expectations despite coming to the Pac-12 Outdoor Championships as the sprinter to beat.
The 20 year old lost in the 100m event by the narrowest of margins (10.22 to 10.23) to Oregon’s Micah Williams for the second successive year.
In the 200m and in the absence of Williams, Onwuzurike ran an incredible 19.91 to not only win his first Conference title but also raced into history books as the third Nigerian man to run a sub-20 seconds in the half lap.
Francis Obikwelu was the first to run inside 20 seconds when he blazed to a 19.84 finish at the semifinal stage at the World Athletics Championships in Seville, Spain in 1999.
Divine Oduduru followed suit 20 years later in Austin, Texas where he ran a new Nigeria 200m record of 19.73 to complete his NCAA sprint double.
Meanwhile, at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship at the ohn Jacobs Track & Field Complex in Norman, Oklahoma, Nigeria’s 400m hurdles record holder, Ezekiel Nathaniel failed to successfully defend the conference title he won in a Nigeria record setting 48.42 last year.
The 19 year old ran 48.52, his second ever run inside 49 seconds behind Texas Tech’s Caleb Dean who ran 48.39 to dethrone the Nigerian as champion.
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