Favour Ofili has won her maiden National title in the 100m event
The sprinter secured the victory with a time of 11.06 seconds on a wet Sunday night at the famous Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, Edo state.
She brushed aside African Games silver medalist, Olayinka Olajide who finished in 11.37 seconds while Justina Eyakpobeyan, who recently won the 100m in the Confederation of African Athletics CAA Region 2 championship in Accra, Ghana and the Commonwealth Youth Games silver medal winner came in third in a time of 11.47 seconds.
Ofili’s time of 11.06 seconds also secured her a place at the Paris Games in the 100m event after Rosemary Chukwuma and Tima Godbless.
She has now won two individual titles at the Championships following her 200m win in 2019 in Kaduna.
Ofili has now qualified to represent Nigeria in the 100m and 200m event and has become the second Nigerian woman after Tima Godbless to qualify for both sprint events.
Former long jumper Chinedu Odozor-Onikeku described the race as demanding having extracted the best performance from Ofili who had shone like stars at previous competitions in United States.
In the men’s 100m, Kanyinsola Ajayi also took his first title.
Kanyinsola Ajayi put behind a fairly strong cast of runners in a time of 10.14 seconds. Alaba Akintola came second in 10.16 seconds and defending champion, Usheoritse Itsekiri in 10.22 seconds.
Ajayi time is not good enough for the Olympics as he needs to run 10.00 seconds to land in the fashion capital, Paris.
In the men’s Shot Put, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi successfully defended his title with a 21.37m effort. It is his fourth straight glory and five overall after winning on his debut in the Championship in Sapele, Delta State, South South, Nigeria, eight years ago.
The President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Chief Tonobok Okowa commended Chukwuebuka Enekwechi significant achievement. Okowa described him as Nigeria’s dependable Athlete.
The National Trails enters Day 2 yesterday (Monday) and competition starts 3pm local time with the long jump in heptathlon followed by men’s discus final.
