Seye Ogunlewe Wins Third National Title

Seye Ogunlewe, acclaimed Nigeria’s ‘fastest’ man for the third consecutive year, emerged winner of the Men’s 100m event at the ongoing All Nigeria Track and Field Championship cum National trials taking place in Abuja.

Ogunlewe emerged as the 2017 champion despite posting an uninspiring 10.30s winning time which is not good enough to meet the qualifying standard for the World Championships in London.

Ogunlewe won his 2016 title with a faster 10.12s winning time.

Obinna Metu, with a time of 10.36s and Harry Chukwudike who posted a time of 10.44s finished second and third respectively.

For some, the relatively slow performance that has characterised this year’s National trials could be blamed on the bad shape of the tracks at the Abuja National Stadium.

Earlier on Thursday, University of Port Harcourt’s Aniekeme Alphonsus stormed to victory in the women’s 100m final, which served as the major highlight on Day 1 of the National trials.

Defending champion, Blessing Okagbare was absent and Aniekeme seized the moment; winning with a time of 11.52 which is also a far cry from the qualifying standard for the same event at the World Championships in London.

In some of the other events on Friday, Sodji Hamajan won his second men’s 800m title in a time of 1:48.66.

Emmanuel Gyang was the winner in the men’s 5000m while the Men’s Hammer title was won by Olawale Olatunji with a throw of 46.44m.