US-born Nigerian athlete Udodi Onwuzurike has picked a ticket to represent the country at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Recall that Onwuzurike burst onto the global scene at 18, winning the 200m at the 2021 World U20 Championships in Nairobi.
Onwuzurike made his debut as a professional athlete, opening up his season at the Pure Athletics Spring Invitational in Florida and clocking a time of 20.13s (1.9) to win the men’s 200m.
With this time, he has qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics as he defeated Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, who was 2nd in 20.40s and Jona Efoloko in 20.44s.
He ran an incredible 200m PB of 19.76s en route to winning the 2023 NCAA 200m Title, placing him 2nd on Nigeria’s all-time list and making him the 5th fastest 20-year-old ever globally in the 200m.
In 2023, he also became Nigeria’s 13th man to run sub-10s in the 100m with a 9.92s PB, placing him 5th on the Nigerian all-time list, after a promising 2022 season where he anchored Team Nigeria to 4x100m Bronze at the Commonwealth Games after representing Nigeria at the World Championships in the 100m and 200m.
