A quartet of Nigerian sprinters – Favour Ofili, Grace Nwokocha, Rosemary Chukwuma and Udodi Onwuzurike – were in action on Day 5 of the Oregon 2022 World Championships in Eugene, all participating in the 200m semifinals.
The women’s 200m seems to be at the very highest level ever and Favour Ofili came very close to being the first Nigerian to make a 200m final since 2013, when she clocked a time of 22.30s to take 3rd in the third semifinal, just missing out on an automatic spot as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won that semi in 21.83s!
Grace Nwokocha was in the semifinal before that, placing 5th with a time of 22.49s, just five-hundredths of a second outside her Personal Best (PB) while Rosemary Chukwuma clocked a respectable 22.72s for a 7th place finish in the first semifinal.
Meanwhile, Udodi Onwuzurike was in action in the men’s 200m, returning a time of 20.39 for 6th in a semifinal won by Noah Lyles in 19.62s.