The men’s 100m at the NCAA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, was billed to be an exciting race and clearly, it did live up to expectations. Nigeria’s Favour Ashe went into that final as the only freshman in the field, having only moved to the US this year to further his athletics career while on a scholarship with the University of Tennessee but despite that, he was touted as a potential threat to the more experienced and senior competitors in the race.
He proved his mettle as he led the race from the start, only challenged by Joseph Fahnbulleh whose finishing speed would hand him the title in 10.00s (0.6). Ashe came home in 10.08s to finish 2nd, the best performance by a Vol since Christian Coleman won the NCAA title and set the NCAA Record in 2017.
For 19-year-old Udodi Onwuzurike, he has been breaking and setting new National and African Records all year long, so it was only right that he was one of the favourites in the 200m, an event where he happens to be the World U-20 Champion. The Stanford University freshman carried on that form over to the men’s 200m final as he clocked a time of 20.15s (0.6) to finish 3rd and cap off a successful NCAA debut season.
NCAA Leader, Nathaniel Ezekiel came close to finishing on the podium in the men’s 400mH final as he clocked a time of 49.24s to place 4th, just outside Isaiah Levingston’s 49.20s for 3rd. Sean Burrell who has been on a comeback finally completed the trail by defending his title in 48.70s!
Erhire Best’s clearance of 2.15m was the fifth best height of the day and saw him finish 14th in the men’s High Jump final.
