Previous Nigerian athlete, Seigha Porbeni, has explained new ‘track queen,’ Favour Ofili, as a reward to the nation’s athletics.
The 19-calendar year-previous Ofili, at the weekend, in much absent United States, ran a blistering 21.96 seconds to acquire the Tom Jones Memorial Traditional 2022.
Apart from starting to be the 1st Collegiate athlete to at any time go sub 22 seconds, Ofili broke Blessing Okagbare’s 200 metres Countrywide Record of 22.04 seconds, which she set in 2018.
Ofili also emerged as the first Nigerian woman to crack 22 seconds in the 200m. Her time is the fastest at any time in the NCAA record and also the fastest in the globe this calendar year.
Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Porbeni said that the foundation of Ofili’s dominance in the 200m was laid in 2014, when mentor Chet Iyke discovered her in Agbor in the build up to Dr. Awoture Eleyae’s U-14 Athletics championship at Ozoro.
“I will say that Favour Ofili is a gift to Nigeria’s athletics, Porbeni mentioned in a phone chat with The Guardian yesterday.
“We were scouting for young athletes to signify Staff Delta at the Awoture Eleyae’s U-14 Athletics Championship in 2014, when coach Chet Iyke learned Ofili in Agbor. She was combining the prolonged soar and the sprint gatherings, even when she attained admission into the University of Port Harcourt.”
Ofili, a indigenous of Onicha-Ugbo, Delta Point out, went on to dominate the Nationwide Youth Game titles in Ilorin with Crew Delta just before she travelled to the United States a couple of several years in the past.
Porbeni discovered that right after observing Ofili’s functionality at the Entire world U-20 Athletics Championship in Nairobi final 12 months, he understood that the athlete was inching nearer to a globe-dominance.
At Nairobi 2021 World U20 Championship, Ofili grabbed a bronze medal in the women’s 200m, environment a new 22.23 seconds private best and a Nationwide U-20 report. She later helped the women’s 4x100m workforce to a bronze medal end in 43.90 seconds.
“For Ofili to blend her strength, endurance and velocity to run 21.96 seconds in the U.S. at the weekend confirmed her stage of consistency. Nigeria now has a new Okagbare and I consider Ofili will be pondering of likely expert any time mainly because she is ripe for it,” Porbeni said.
Ofili was element of Team Nigeria to the Tokyo Olympics and the Environment U20 Athletics Championship in Nairobi final calendar year.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Ofili and other nine Nigerian athletes had been disqualified from competing due to their failure to comply with the out of the level of competition screening (OCT) requirement.
AFN President, Tonobok Okowa, has congratulated Ofili stating: “She has made us very pleased. She has taken care of a regular rise in athletics considering that I integrated her in our workforce to the Nationwide Youth Game titles in Ilorin. I am absolutely sure she will write Nigeria’s identify in gold at African championship in Mauritius, the Environment Championship in Oregon and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
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