Divine Oduduru is in the form of his life at the moment. Photo Credit: texastech.com

Barely a day after an impressive Personal Best (PB) in the 60m, Divine Oduduru has stormed to yet another milestone, this time around racing to a new Nigerian Record in the men’s 200m Indoor with a PB of 20.18s at the Texas Tech Open meet.

Not only does that time put him on top of the men’s 200m (indoor) in the world this year, Oduduru is now number 4 on the all-time list, a stellar performance that sees him in good company as Namibia’s Frank Fredericks.

In fact just three people have run faster than him in the men’s 200m indoors, with Fredericks holding the World Record (WR) of 19.92s set 22 years ago, while Wallace Spearmon (20.10s) and Christian Coleman (20.11s) are the only people to have run faster than Oduduru.

Oduduru stuttered a bit after the last curve, but it did not stop him from powering to a fast finish and surpassing Francis Obikwelu’s long standing Nigerian record of 20.46s.

It was only a matter of time before Oduduru gets the better of Obikwelu’s record having served a glimpse of what to expect when he raced to a then WL of 20.49s last month, only to lose it to Ncincihli Titi a day later after the South African clocked 20.45s. However he has now reclaimed the WL and looks like he would be keeping it for some time.

There were 16 heats on the day, but Oduduru was the clear standout performer, having easily won heat 1 ahead of Andrew Hudson who was 2nd in 20.42s and Steven Champlin placing 3rd in 20.89s

Another Nigerian athlete who also competed was Aniekeme Alphonsus, who won heat 3 of the women’s 200m with a time of 24.03s ahead of D’jia Baker who was 2nd in 24.23s and Devin Johnson 3rd in 24.54s

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Athletics coverage was a discovery, having to move away from regularly writing about Football. Although it was initially daunting, but now being an authority in it makes the past effort worthwhile. From travelling on the same international flight with Nigerian athletes, to knowing you could easily interview: World Record holder Tobi Amusan, then Ese Brume, I have cut my teeth in this beat earning the trust of Athletics sources. Formerly the Content Manager-Sports at Ringier media Nigeria, Chris is a Senior Sports writer, Photographer & Community manager at Making of Champions.

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