Reigning Nigeria triple jump record holder Ruth Usoro has been confirmed as the ninth Nigerian athlete to qualify for the Oregon 2022 World Athletics Championships holding this July in Oregon, USA.
The 24 year old qualifies for World Athletics’ flagship event for this year following her incredible NCAA and Nigeria’s indoor record jump last Saturday in Texas.
Usoro hopped, stepped and jumped into a historic 14.76m at the Corky Classics held at the Sports Performance Centre in Lubbock, Texas.
The mark is 62cm farther than the 17.14m qualification standard set by World Athletics for the event.
She has now joined eight others who ensured their flight to Oregon last year.
They are Enoch Adegoke who ran 9.98 seconds at the Olympics to qualify
and Grace Nwokocha who ran 11.00 and 22.47 seconds at the Tokyo Olympics in the 100m and 200m respectively to qualify.
Others are Favour Ofili, the World U20 championships 200m bronze medal winner and Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike who won the World U20 200m title last August in Nairobi, Kenya.
Tokyo Olympics long jump bronze medallist Ese Brume, sprinter Divine Oduduru and shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi have also booked their passage.
Sprint hurdler Tobi Amusan has been granted a wild card entry to the Championships following her historic 100m hurdles Diamond League win last year albeit the 24 year old has also met the 12.84 seconds entry standard several times since the qualification window opened in June 28, 2021.
Amusan’s wild card will give Nigeria the opportunity to field four athletes in the 100m hurdles if they all meet the entry standard.
In the relays, only the women’s 4x100m team has secured provisional qualification which is also subject to the doping case involving Blessing Okagbare.
Okagbare anchored the team to a 42.97 finish in Lagos on 19 June, 2021. The time has provisionally qualified the team to run in Oregon but if the 33 year old’s doping allegations are confirmed, the team will have to run fast elsewhere between now and June 26 to secure another qualification.
Meanwhile, World Athletics last week launched ‘Road to Oregon’, an online tool to help athletes, fans and media track the qualification process for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
Searchable by event, country and qualification status, the tool provides a real-time view of each event over the course of the qualification period, which ends on 26 June 2022 (29 May 2022 for the marathon and 35km race walk). The World Championships will be held from 15-24 July 2022.
Athletes are able to qualify through one of four ways: by achieving an entry standard, by virtue of their placing at area championships or Platinum Label marathons (considered as having achieved the entry standard), by wild card entry or by world rankings position.
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