Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru ended Nigeria’s 13 year wait for a sub-10 at the Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco, Texas on Saturday. The Nigerian sprinter finished in 9.94 seconds to take over as the U.S. and world leader.
His team mate Andrew Hudson ran 10.13 in second while Taylor’s Maxwell Willis finished third in 10.21 seconds.
Olusoji Fasuba was the last Nigerian to run an African record of 9.85 seconds in 2006.
At about 45 minutes later, the defending outdoor and indoor 200m national champion set his first 200m of the 2019 season and ran a PB in 19.76 seconds, the second-fastest time ever run by a collegiate athlete.
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His new National Record and Season Record in the 200m broke Francis Obikwelu’s National Record of 19.84 seconds in 1999.
Oduduru is the ninth Nigerian to ever run sub-10 in the 100m, and the second to go sub-20 in the 200m behind Walter Dix of Florida State University set in 25th May 2007 in a time of 19.69 seconds on the NCAA all time list.
Oduduru said, “I worked for this. My coaches have always been telling me that I have to get into the moment where I can feel everything. I want to say thank you to Coach Calvin Robinson for getting me to this point in my life and my career. We have a great team, and I want to say thank you to everyone for their love and support. Oduduru spoke to www.texatech.com
Just 122 sprinters in history have broken the 10-second barrier in the 100m, and only 72 sprinters have gone sub-20 in the 200m.
Oduduru said running both times within an hour was a result of his coach’s training.
“It is something we do in practice. We run, time the rest, then come back and run another race. He [Robinson] said to just run it the way I do in practice.”
In his response, Robinson admitted to texatech.com that it is a regime they do frequently.
“It is exactly what we do in practice. We came here with the mentality of getting work in and we got it done.”
Oduduru became the first Texas Tech collegiate athlete in track and field history to ever run a sub-10 in the 100m.
