Like Lillies, Favour Ofili’s Flowers Bloom

FAVOUR Ofili’s rise to international limelight has been long in coming. The former Awoture Eleyae U- 14 Championship star has in the last couple of weeks been in the spotlight for delightful reasons.

Last Tuesday, she was named Louisiana State University ( LSU) SEC women’s track athlete of the week following her performances at last weekend’s LSU Invitational.

It’s the second award of the season for Ofili outdoors. She earned it by clocking a personal best time of 10.93 seconds in the 100 metres dash, a race where she beat three

Olympic/ world medalists in the meantime.

The time is No. 4 overall in the NCAA this season and ranks as the second fastest wind legal time in college this year. It’s No. 4 on the world list and it moved her up to No. 3 in Nigerian history and No. 5 in African history as well. It’s also No. 5 in LSU history and makes her the eighth fastest performer in collegiate history.

Such accolade for a youngster, who a few years ago was competing out of the dusty grounds of her native Onicha Ugbo community in Delta State, is astonishing.

Discovered by Coach Chet Iyke, Ofili, who sometimes does the long jump, she actually began to show that she had it in her to become a world champion at the University of Port Harcourt, where the coaches at the high performance centre set her on the curve to actualising her potential.

As well as the long and sprints, Ofili also did the 400m in her early years. She won the girls’ 400m title at the 2017 National Youth Games, and then made her international debut at the 2018 African Youth Games in Algiers where she won the 400m in 53.57.

She went on to compete at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina finishing 10th overall, and then enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2019, starting at the African U- 18 Championships in Abidjan where she won the 200m and 400m in PBS of 23.38 and 52.28. She was later named the most outstanding female athlete of the championships.

Ofili’s bloom began to spread when she got admitted to study in the United States, where she found the space and competition at LSU to come to her own in the short sprints.

The lass first showed the colour of her promise at the

World U- 20 Athletics Championship in Nairobi last year, where she won a bronze medal in the women’s 200m with a new 22.23 seconds personal best and a National U- 20 record.

She later helped the women’s 4x100m team to a bronze medal finish in 43.90 seconds.

Before the World junior Championships, Ofili was looking forward to competing with the seniors at Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but administrative problems ensured that she, alongside 10 other Nigerians, did not compete at the Games.

“The World U20 Championships was a miracle competition for me,” she says. “Going into the competition, I was not physically or mentally okay because of what happened with my place on the Olympic team. I went to Nairobi to have fun and, to my greatest surprise; it turned out to be great. I learned a lot from that competition and it helped changed my mind- set,” she said.

Earlier in 2019, the teenage Ofili had threatened the national U- 18 400 metres record, clocking 51.51 on her way to the semifinals at the World Championships in Doha. This happened just after landing in LSU, where she is majoring in sports administration. She set an African indoor 200m record of 22.75 and became one of the leading sprinters on the U. S. collegiate circuit.

Last month the young Nigerian made her first legal sub- 11- second run in the 100m, racing to a lifetime best of 10.93 ( 2.0m/ s) in Baton Rouge.

The mark made her third on the Nigerian all- time list, fifth on the African all- time list and fourth on this year’s world list.

In April, Ofili caught the world’s attention when she stormed to a national record of 21.96 seconds over 200m, becoming the first collegiate athlete in history to break 22 seconds in the discipline.

Despite all the accolades that has trailed her recent accomplishments, Ofili’s feet is still firmly on the ground. She sees her feats as a call to work harder.

In an interview published by lsusports. net, she said: “Since my Nigerian record, nothing has really changed; nothing special has changed,” she said. “I am trying to keep my head down and not allow whatever is happening online ( the buzz) get to my head. I am just happy and grateful to God for making me the first Nigerian woman to do it ( sub- 22).

“When I ran and I saw the time, 21.96, I was like ‘ Oh, okay.’ It was an expectation that was meant to happen because of hard work. If it ( 21.96) came now, that means there are still more things that are coming for me when it comes to the 200m. All these things I have achieved now are nothing. People have done it before; I’m not the first person to do it.”

Already, Ofili has been included in the

10- woman Bowerman list of athletes in the running for the prestigious award that is presented to the top male and female track and field competitor in the United States.

Since making her Bowerman debut when she set a collegiate record in the 200 metres with a 21.96 on April 15, Ofili has been nothing short of phenomenal.

She ran a windaided 10.90 in the

100 meters in the

Alumni Gold meet, then clocked a windlegal 10.93 to take the title in the LSU Invitational.

That time, which helped Ofili beat three sprinters who own

Olympic or World championship medals, is the eighth- fastest ever run by a collegian.

For her efforts, Ofili was on Wednesday named the Southeastern Conference women’s track athlete of the week.

“I had always believed that with God everything thing is possible, and that I will be great in track and break records,” she says. “But I knew that everything was going to start falling into place when I decided to come to the States. I knew that was the starting point.

“I had always believed that with God everything thing is possible, and that I will be great in track and break records,” she says. “But I knew that everything was going to start falling into place when I decided to come to the States. I knew that was the starting point.”

Ofili has even bigger events lined up this year, but for those urging her to choose her major event, they will have to wait a little longer as she is yet to decide between the long and short sprints.

“For now I don’t have a permanent event,” she says. “I see myself achieving the speed for the shorter sprint events because that’s what we ( my coach and I) started focusing on from the indoors so we just have to maintain it and keep it going.” With the World Athletics Championships in Oregon around the corner, Ofili is excited at the prospect of returning to Hayward Field. When she competed there last year at the NCAA Championships, she finished just 0.03 shy of a medal.

“The track felt good when I competed there last year,” she said. “It will be a great honour to compete there again for the World Championships.”

She has even bigger goals in the long term, and feels she has only just scratched the surface.

“As I get deeper into this track and field career of mine, I just want to keep my head down, focus on my studies which brought me here to the States and stay healthy,” she says. “If you are healthy, you can really do anything.”