By Taiwo Ibrahim
Top Nigerian sport stars made the headlines during the weekend with impressive record-breaking performances in various sports, Tobi Amusan, Ella Onojuvwevwo, Anuoluwapo Opeyori and Victor Boniface all enjoyed successful outings, Sportivationng.com reports.
Nigeria’s Queen of the Track, Tobi Amusan became the fastest woman in the world when she defeated world champion, Danielle Williams in the women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 12.40s to win the first Jamaica Athletics Invitational in Kingston.
Amusan recovered from a slow start to beat the previous world-leading time of 12.42s set by Tonea Marshall of the USA on April 20.
Danielle Williams of Jamaica finished second with a time of 12.46s seconds, while Christina Clemens of the USA took the third position with 12.54s.
In February, She set a new African record of 7.77s in the 60m hurdles event at the Astana Indoor Meet in Kazakhstan, breaking the 25-year-old record held by Gloria Alozie.
Ella Onojuvwevwo produced a sensational performance with a record-breaking time of 50.57secs to finish second in the women’s 400m heat at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Florida on Saturday.
She booked her place in the Paris 2024 Olympics in style, shattering LSU Ladies Tigers’ 27-year record with a qualifying standard of 51.00secs, it was also the fastest by any Nigerian woman since Falilat Ogunkoya’s 50.50secs in 2001 at the IAAF World Championships in Edmonton, Canada.
Onojuvwevwo became the latest Nigerian athlete to qualify for the Olympics joining the likes of Tobi Amusan, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Favour Ashe, Udodi Onwuzurike, Favour Ofili, Ezekiel Nathaniel and Edose Ibadin.
She also played a key role in helping team Nigeria’s Nigeria’s mixed 4x400m to qualify for the highly-rated event in Paris.
Similarly, Anuoluwapo Opeyori, a Badminton player has also qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
He became the first Nigerian Badminton player to qualify for two Olympic games after taking part in the 2020 edition.
Opeyori has enjoyed a successful run in the African men’s single of the sport, winning four Championship titles and two African Games title since 2019.
Godson Oghenebrume also booked his place at the 2024 Paris Olympics after he retained his 100m title at the SEC Championships with a time of 9.99s in Florida on Sunday.
In Football, Victor Boniface was on target in Bayer Leverkusen’s 5-0 win over Bochum to set a new European record of 50 games unbeaten.
The Super Eagles star scored from the penalty spot in the first half for his 20th goal of the season in all competitions.
Boniface is in line to win an historic treble in his first season, Xabi Alonso’s men have won the Bundesliga title and they are also in the finals of the German Cup and the Europa League.
Another Super Eagles star, Cyriel Dessers was on target for his club Rangers in the 2-1 defeat to Celtic in the Scottish League.
He has now scored 21 goals in all competitions for Rangers this season.
