By Monica Iheakam
Nigeria’s Udodi Onwuzurike has earned his first Track Athlete of the week award after his phenomenal performance at the Stanford Invitational last weekend at Cobb Track and Angell Field in USA.
The World U20 champion,last weekend, broke Stanford Univeeity’s freshman records in both the 100 and 200 meters races in his collegiate debut running 10.14 in the 100m prelims and topping it that with a 10.07 in the final, which is No. 2 in America this year.
Onwuzurike came from behind on the anchor to edge other sprinters in he 4×100 relay winning in 40.10, which is No. 9 in Stanford history. Later the same day, he earned his third victory of the meet by running the second-fastest 200 time in school history.
At the 2021 World Athletics U20 championship held in Nairobi, Kenya, Onwuzurike broke a 25 year old jinx in Nigerian track history in a time of 20.21s.
The golden feat earned him a Personal Best and a National U20 record that has seen no other Nigeria win gold in the 200m event since Francis Obikwelu won in 1996 in Sydney.
He has been tipped by World Athletics as one of the young sprint sensations primed for podium finish at this year’s World U 20 championship in Cali, Colombia in August.