Divine Oduduru became the first Nigerian to run as fast as 20.25s in the 200 metres for TWELVE YEARS, as he raced to a silver medal behind USA’s Tentravis Friday (20.04s) at the ongoing World Junior Athletics Championships in Eugene, USA for U-20 athletes. Oduduru’s official Personal Best remains as 20.66s, which he ran in the semi-final the day before, because his 20.25s was run with a tailwind of 2.3m/s, which makes it ineligible for record purposes as it is over the legal limit of 2.0m/s. Nevertheless, it is an incredible performance whose won the Nigerian Trials in 20.87s, and has a lifetime best of 10.30s in the 100 metres. His progression over the last year has been nothing short of meteoric, given that a year ago he was running 21.13s set at the World Youth Championships in Ukraine!
The significance of Divine’s run cannot be overstated – he beat much more heavily favoured athletes such as Jamaica’s Michael O’Hara (who beat him in the heats and semi-finals) into 3rd place and Anguilla’s Zharnel Hughes (who trains with Usain Bolt’s coach) into 5th place, and in so doing matched the FIFTH fastest men on Nigeria’s all-time list in the 200 metres! That will not be an official statistic given that it was wind-assisted, but his potential to run such a time NOW should fill Nigerians with excitement that perhaps we have an athlete here whom, with the right guidance and training, could become a serious Olympic medal contender in 2 year’s time! This result is certainly a breath of fresh air in what has so far been a bitterly disappointing championships for Nigeria. Even at the last edition in Barcelona 2 years ago, Team Naija came home with no medals, so this is a result definitely worth celebrating!
There had been some talk about why Divine was not also entered into the 100 metres at these championships, and his coaching crew must be commended for picking their battles wisely – the 100m Champion from these games, USA’s Kendal Williams failed to make it to the 200m final, likely due to exhaustion, a serious factor to consider at the U-20 level. The big question now is, does Nigeria have any plans to ship him straight over to Glasgow to compete in the Commonwealth Games in the coming week? He was listed on the Commonwealth Games team following the Nigerian trials, but it remains to be seen if his participation in the 200m in Glasgow has been properly planned for. Commowealth 200m starts this Wednesday (July 30th) – watch this space!
Photo finish of Divine Oduduru’s 2nd place finish in the 200m at the 2014 World Juniors, in a wind-assisted time of 20.25 seconds!
