Rising Nigerian athlete, Maria Umoibang has qualified for the sprint double at the forthcoming World U20 Championships in Nairobi after storming to a new Personal Best (PB) of 24.31s to win the women’s 200m at the Paga/MoC Relays held at the Yaba College of Technology Sports Complex in Lagos.

Umoibang’s time was the overall fastest across the two finals in the women’s 200m, surpassing the Entry Standard of 24.35s for the World U20 Championships. She accomplished this feat barely two hours after clocking the third overall fastest time across the three 100m heats where she posted 11.79s in Heat 1 which was won by Ogundiran in 11.54s.

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This is coming against the backdrop of her inspiring performance at the recently-concluded Nigerian Olympic Trials, where she made the finals of the stacked women’s 100m event, running a wind-aided 11.59s in the process.

Umoibang, 16, had earlier qualified in the 100m (for the World U20 Champs) after setting PBs of 11.84s and 11.81s respectively at the BetKing/3rd MoC Grand Prix back in March, bettering the entry standard of 11.85s. She has since improved her PB to 11.73s.