Delta State-born Favour Ofili now has her eyes on a podium finish at the Paris 2024 after she triumphantly blazed to clocking 11.06s to grab her maiden women’s 100m title on Day 1 of the Nigerian Olympic Trials in Benin.
Victory at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin handed Ofili an automatic qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“I feel great and I am still hungry for more,” she said in a flash interview while urging Nigerians to continue praying for her ahead of the Paris Olympics. “ The secret is being patient. I didn’t leave 400, my coach observed and did what a coach ought to do. That’s why I am still there.
“I will go there and do what I am supposed to do more importantly, stay healthy. You all should pray for me to be healthy because if I am healthy, you know what I can do.”
Ofili ran a new personal best of 11.06 to secure her first National Championships 100m title as she African Games silver medalist, Olayinka Olajide who came second in 11.37 secs and Justina Eyakpobeyan, the Commonwealth Youth Games silver medal winner who came in third in 11.47s.
According to the AFN , Ofili’s time also secured her a place in the 100m event after Rosemary Chukwuma and Tima Godbless. She has now won two individual titles at the Championships following her 200m win in 2019 in Kaduna.
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Ofili has now qualified to represent Nigeria in both the 100m and 200m event and has become the second Nigerian woman after Godbless to qualify for both sprint events.
Former athlete and long jumper Chinedu Odozor-Onikeku described the race as demanding having extracted the best performance from Ofili who had shone like stars at previous competitions abroad.
In the men’s version, Kanyinsola Ajayi also emerged as first time Nigeria 100m title winner after speeding past(10.14) Alaba Akintola (10.16s) and defending champion, Usheoritse Itsekiri (10.22s.).
Ajayi is however unable to secure his passage to the Olympics at the Championships as he needs to run 10.00 seconds to do so.
In the men’s Shot Put, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi successfully defended his title with a 21.37m effort. It is his fourth straight title win and five overall after winning on his debut in the competition in Sapele in 2016