Oduduru breaks national 200m record in American meet

Idris Adesina

Brazzaville 2015 All Africa Games silver medallist  Divine Oduduru  broke the national 200m indoor record after winning the event in 20.18secs  at the Texas Tech Open in the United States on Sunday.

Apart from being the national record, Oduduru’s time is also his new personal best in the event as well as the world lead. The time also replaces Texas Tech’s record of 20.49secs  set by Oduduru, who finished  7th in heat 2 of the semi-finals at the  Rio 2016 Olympics, in January.

Oduduru’s time is also fourth on the all-time 200m indoor list. Namibian Frankie Fredericks holds the world record of 19.92secs  set 22 years ago while Wallace Spearmon is all-time second with 20.10secs and Christian Coleman is third with 20.11secs.

In a video of  the event released by the school online, Oduduru  recovered to power to a fast finish to surpass Francis Obikwelu’s long-standing Nigerian record of 20.46secs.

Meanwhile, Oduduru also stormed to a new school record in the men’s 60m on Saturday after winning the event with a time of 6.58secs.

The time replaces Julius Walker’s  6.63secs record for Texas tech. It is the first time Oduduru will run below the 6.60secs mark for the first time in his career.

Oduduru’s time is the third fastest in the NCAA this year and his time ranks him in 11th place in the world alongside Yunier Perez and Ojie Edoborun.

The 21-year-old will have his sights set on breaking the national indoor 60m record of 6.48secs set by Deji Aliu 19 years ago in France.

Also,  Tobi Amusan beat former Olympic champion and London 2017 silver medallist Dawn Harper-Nelson and Rio 2016 bronze medallist Kristi Castlin to win the women’s 60m hurdles at the 111th NYRR Millrose Games in New York on Saturday.

The 2015 All Africa Games champion won the race in 7.90secs. She was followed by USA’s Castlin in 8.02secs while Queen Harrison was third in 8.03secs.

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