3. Favour Ofili
It says so much about Favour Ofili’s career growth that she is now ranked at number 3 in our Top 10 Nigerian Female Athletes of the Year list. Just a few years ago, she was still strutting it out in Ilorin at the National Youth Games. Now, she is an international athlete of repute, and has firmly established herself as a top Nigerian and African athlete.
Ofili is mercurial; she is a special athlete, one gem the country is proud to call their own. She may not have attained the highest heights yet, but she broke so many glass ceilings in 2022 that Nigerians can only but dream of what’s set to come from her.
No African woman has run more sub-23s in the 200m indoors like Ofili, who has a total of nine sub-23s in this event. Only two African women have broken the sub-23s indoors, and Murielle Ahoure who is the only other African to do so, ran it just once. Almost every 200m indoor race Ofili competed in this season were African Records (AR), and when she surpassed Ahoure’s 22.80s, she never looked back, going on to set a new one of 22.46s eventually.
No one would dispute the stellar season Ofili has had, and by the time she left Birmingham in August after competing at the Commonwealth Games, she had competed in 66 races across all disciplines in 2022. She operated like a machine, and was effective for both Louisiana State University (LSU) and her country, Nigeria.
This season, Ofili went into the hallowed chambers of sub 22s in the 200m outdoors, becoming the first Nigerian woman to break that barrier, running a new National Record of 21.96s. That time is more phenomenal when you consider the calibre of Nigerian athletes who had blazed the tracks before her.
It’s astonishing how Ofili, who stepped down from the quarter-mile this season, easily adapted into the shorter sprints as though she started off from them. She went into 5th place in the Nigerian 100m all-time list, clocking a new Personal Best of 10.93s. One would have been forgiven to think it was a one-race magic, but she replicated it for the second time, winning the SEC outdoor championships title with 10.93s.
Only two women from Nigeria have ever run faster than her, and it speaks volumes about someone whose career is just starting. In the 200m, she is one of three African women in history who have run a sub-22s.
The number of races she ran in 2022 took a toll on her, and while she may have wanted to win either of the 100m and 200m NCAA titles, she would be content with her 200m Silver medal for her school, competing in her second full season on the circuit.
Ofili finished 2022 with her second senior individual medal for Nigeria, clocking 22.60s to clinch Silver in the women’s 200m in Birmingham, finishing 2nd behind Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, one athlete she really admires.
Next season, Ofili will return with much experience in what is potentially her last season competing in the NCAA. She may not have a point to prove to anyone, but there’s an innate hunger to leave an indelible mark and obliterate all LSU’s records that she can lay her hands on.
Ofili has earned all her flowers, and barring the top 2 Nigerian athletes who are above her in our toplist, there isn’t any other who has had a much better season than she.
