6. Rosemary Chukwuma
Right from her junior years, Rosemary Chukwuma had shown great promise and displayed potentials of someone who could be destined for the very top. While she has had memorable years in her developmental path, 2022 was the year she finally came of age and attained great heights.
On two occasions, she has come close to emerging as Nigeria’s fastest woman at the Nigerian Trials, twice finishing second on the track, and although she eventually got awarded the 2021 title, her growth in Athletics has been a delight.
For the first time in her career, Chukwuma ran under 11s this season, clocking a Personal Best (PB) of 10.99s in the 100m. That time elevated her to 6th in the Nigerian All-time list, earning enormous respect in the Nigerian Athletics circle. She is not a newbie, but even veterans struggle for such heights.
Chukwuma qualified for her first final in the women’s 100m at the NCAA Championships and came very close to finishing on the podium for Texas Tech University, coming in 4th with a time of 11.14s. She is entering what is potentially her last season in the NCAA, and could really have a big go for the title this time around.
Rosemary Chukwuma🇳🇬 is the second Nigerian athlete through to the final of women's 100m, getting to the line in an automatic spot, finishing 2nd in heat 3 with a time of 11.02s. Daryll Neita🏴 ran a new Personal Best of 10.90s (+1.1) to win the race. #CommonwealthGames2022 pic.twitter.com/VTRrmm0NwG
— Making of Champions (@MakingOfChamps) August 3, 2022
One admirable thing about Chukwuma’s talent is how adept she is to the short sprints. Some athletes struggle to perform optimally in both the 100m and 200m, while to some it looks like a cakewalk. Chukwuma falls in the latter category.
With a 200m PB of 22.33s, she is 6th in the Nigerian all-time list and 5th on the continent in 2022. She is going to definitely cut down that time in no distant time and scratch a sub 22s in the 200m.
Having struggled to renew her student visa, it was not surprising that she couldn’t make a huge impact in Eugene, arriving just a day before the start of the 200m. But when she went for the Commonwealth Games, she was fully recharged for her second Games and turned up bigly.
Chukwuma may have missed another individual podium placement, narrowly out of the medals zone in 4th place, but she left Birmingham with something, becoming the first Nigerian 100m athlete to secure automatic qualification for Budapest in 2023.
