Team Nigeria’s Favour Ofili made history Monday’s night for qualifying for the final of the women’s 200 metres at the ongoing 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France in Paris.
Ofili became first Nigerian to reach the milestone since Mary Onyali raced to the final of the women’s 200m event at the Atlanta ’96 games in the United States.
She ran a season-best of 22.05 seconds to place behind Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia in heat 1 of the semi-finals.
Ofili will join seven others in Tuesday evening’s final of the event.
The Nigerian athlete is the lowest on the list with a world ranking of 31 and with a personal best of 21.96.
Alfred had in the semi-finals a time of 21.98 and Gabrielle Thomas of the U.S. had 21.86 in winning heat 2 of the semi-finals.
Born six years after Onyali achieved the feat in 2002, Ofili will be aiming to better her compatriot’s bronze-winning run.
Ofili’s groundbreaking race came after she was omitted from the 100m race owing to administrative lapse.
