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By Monica Iheakam
The record breaking feats from the trio of Nigerian in the U S have earned them pride of place as outstanding athletes of the week for their various universities.
A world-leading performance surely deserves recognition, as Rosemary Chukwuma earned the honour of being named BIG 12 Female Athlete Of The Week for her outstanding accomplishment last weekend.
Chukwuma ran a Personal Best (PB), School Record, and World-leading time of 7.11s, to win her 60m semis race and almost equalled the time clocking 7.13s for victory in the final at the Texas Tech Corky Classic.
Being the fastest time in the world this year, it equates to the fastest in the NCAA and Nigeria. The time also propels her to joint-eighth on the all-time Nigeria list, behind Blessing Okagbare with 7.09s.
Also, Conference USA announced its first Track and Field Athletes of the Week for the indoor season, including Middle Tennessee’s Alaba Akintola, who was named Male Track Athlete of the Week.
Akintola ran in both the 60-meter and 200-meter events to start the season at Vanderbilt in the Commodore Challenge. He took first place in both events and set a new personal-best time in the 60 meters.
The Nigerian earned a time of 6.59 seconds in the 60-meters, which is a top-five time in the nation and first in C-USA. This time replaces a 20-year-old program record set by NCAA champion Mardy Scales.
Cumberland’s freshman, Goodness Iredia was named the Middle South Conference Men’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Week for his performances over the weekend.
His “A” standard which he made in the triple jump with 15.59m is currently the best in the NAIA. In the process, he also broke his school record.
