By Monica Iheakam
Nigerian track and field athletes kept Europe buzzing over the weekend, as they opened their indoor season in a burst of energy, clinching top spots and recording new season’s and personal bests on the track.
In Germany, African women’s hurdles champion, Tobi Amusan earned a new season’s bests in the 60meters women’s hurdles event.
Amusan ran a time of 7.94s (SB) to take second position in the finals of the Women’s 60mH event at the World Indoor Tour Gold in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The success story continued in the USA as Ruth Usoro leapt a mark of 14.07m to clinch first place in the women’s Triple Jump event at the Texas Invitational. Her leap of 14.07m is the sixth-best jump in the world this year behind her current world lead.
Rosemary Chukwuma was in action at the South Plains College Indoor Invite on Friday. She ran 7.46s to clinch first place in the Women’s 60m event and also meet the national qualifying time. She also helped her team clinch second place in the women’s 4x400m relay with a time of 4:04.18
Also in action at the South Plains College Indoor was Success Umokoro. She participated in the Women’s 60m dash, 200m dash and also in the Women’s 4x400m relay. In the 60m event, she ran a time of 7.78s to clinch second position behind Rosemary Chukwuma.
The time was good enough for her to qualify for the Nationals. In the 200m event, she clinched second position with a time of 25.70s while she helped her team to first position in the 4x400m relay with a time of 3:57.73.
Long jump sensation, Onaara Obamuwagun also shone brightly at the South Plains College Indoor Invvite where she participated in the Women’s Long Jump and Triple Jump events.
She emerged as a double champion on the day soaring 5.25m to win the long jump event before setting a new PB with a mark of 10.75m to not only win but defend her title as the National Indoor Triple Jump Champion. Both marks were good enough for her to meet the national qualifying time.
