Divine Ejowkovoghene Oduduru has made a habit of breaking through long established records and setting new records of his own.
The Nigerian produced an impressive performance at the Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco, Texas, over the weekend.
Oduduru was scheduled to take part in both the men’s 100m and 200m events at the invitational.
In what many would probably dub the best performance by a Nigerian in a decade, Oduduru utterly shattered his Personal Best (PB) and school record with a dazzling time of 9.94s in the men’s 100m race in Waco.
The University of Texas junior is the first Nigerian to run a sub-10 since Olusoji Fasuba’s indelible African record feat of 9.85s almost 13 years ago.
Oduduru’s record serves as the fastest time in the world with a tailwind of 0.8m/s and also makes Oduduru the 3rd fastest Nigerian of all-time.
He is the 139th man in history to break the sub-10s barrier and now has the fastest time ever recorded by an athlete for Texas Tech.
About an hour later, Oduduru took it a step up in the 200m event of the invitational.
The young Nigerian smashed Nigeria’s 20-year 200m record set by Francis Obikwelu (19.84s) in Seville 1999, with a new PB of 19.76s.
Oduduru has now become the 3rd fastest man over the distance in Africa, behind the iconic Frankie Fredericks of Namibia who set an almost unassailable record of 19.68s.
The Texas Tech junior’s time also shares the same podium with all-time greats such as Carl Lewis and Joe DeLoach who have the same Personal Records at 15th on the IAAF Top Performance list.
In the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) performance list, Oduduru’s record breaking 200m run is now the 2nd fastest time in the collegiate domain, only surpassed by Walter Dix’s 19.69s run.
Featured image source: Premium Times Nigeria
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