Temitope Adeshina became the Nigerian woman in history to scale a height of 1.97m in high jump, after her superb performance in the final at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships in US on Sunday.
Adeshina’s feat meet the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying standard and also she will be the first athlete to represent Nigeria in the high jump event at the Olympics, since Doreen Amata at the games in Rio.
The 25-year-old now holds the high jump indoor and outdoor national records previously held by Amata.
At the NCAA high jump final Adeshina scaled a personal best, meeting record and national record of 1.97m on her last attempt to rank third based on countbacks. She finished behind Rose Yeboah and Elena Kulichenko who tied for first place.
In June 2022, she won the silver medal in tne high jump at the 2022 African Athletics Championships in St Pierre, Mauritius.
She won the Nigerian championship high jump title in 2022 and retained her Nigerian championship title in 2023.
She joined Texas Tech University in 2023, and competing indoors in early 2024 jumped a personal best and national record height of 1.96 metres in Texas.
Meanwhile, Samuel Ogazi stormed to a massive personal best to clinch Silver with a time of 44.52 seconds.
The University of Alabama freshman who only got to the US six months ago had only most of the indoor season to settle into the new system.
