Nigeria 200m record holder, indoors and out, Favour Ofili and triple jump queen, Ruth Usoro will be in action this weekend at the 2023 Ed Murphey Classic, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Ofili has not raced since June 8 when she ran 22.93 to finish fifth in the semifinals of the 200m event at the 2023 NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships held in Austin, Texas.
The pretty, 20 year old missed the Nigerian track and field championships early last month but looks to be included in Team Nigeria’s contingent to the 19th World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary later this month.
Ofili will thus be using the 2023 Ed Murphey Classic to gauge her preparedness for her third trip to World Athletics’ flagship event and will be seeking to go a step further than her semifinal finishes in 2019 (400m) and 2022 (200m).
She holds a 22.58 personal season’s best but knows she will need to break 22 seconds like she did in April last year.
Also back in action after her first Nigeria long jump title triumph early last month is Usoro who is also returning to the world outdoor stage to make history as the third Nigerian to win a long jump medal.
The last time the 25 year old made the trip to the World Championships, she finished 11th in the final classification.
Usoro holds a 6.82m personal season’s best but will have to become the fourth Nigerian to hit the 7m mark before she can be in contention for a place at the podium.
Also listed to compete at the meeting are 400m runner, Chidi Okezie who seems to have recovered from the injury he copped at the Lagos Athletics series and two-time Nigeria 100m king, OGHO-oghene Egwero.
