Ta Lou-Smith: Africa's fastest woman hails 'great' pool of Nigerian female sprinters

Ta Lou-Smith and Favour Ofili

Ta Lou-Smith: Africa's fastest woman hails 'great' pool of Nigerian female sprinters

Funmilayo Fameso 17:21 - 27.05.2024

Ivorian track legend Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith acknowledged the current talented pool of Nigerian female sprinters after their record-breaking performances this season.

Africa's fastest woman in history Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith has hailed the greatness of the current pool of Nigerian female sprinters.

The Ivorian track legend who competed at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League in Eugene, where she clocked 11.05s to finish sixth behind race winner Sha'Carri Richardson, recognised that Nigerian female sprinters are on to greatness.

Marie-Josee Ta Lou is Africa's most dominant female sprinter in the past decade

Her acknowledgment came after an X athletics enthusiast Track and Field Gazette posted about the success of Nigerian female sprinters this season.

Quoting the post, Ta Lou-Smith wrote: "This is GREAT."

Nigerian female sprinters have been on a meteoric climb this season, blazing to record-breaking times, giving a direction that the country is brewing the next generation of Africa's greatest sprinters like Ta Lou-Smith.

Favour Ofili has been top of the ladder so far having recorded wind-aided 100m times of 10.78s and 10.85s, while in the 200m, she has a Season's Best (SB) performance of 22.33s which seals her automatic ticket in Paris.

Favour Ofili // @LSUTrackField

However, the outstanding performance that led to Ta Lou-Smith's tweet was Rosemary Chukwuma blazing to a blistering 10.88s to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

The Texas Tech University senior not only punched her ticket but her time is the second-fastest by a Nigerian female sprinter in history behind Blessing Okagbare's National Record of 10.79s.

Louisiana State University freshman Tima Godbless is third on the Nigerian list this season with a PB of 11.03s, African Games breakout sprinter Olayinka Olajide is fourth at 11.19s, and Tobi Amusan completes the top5 list at 11.26s.

Nigeria's 4x100m quartet of Olayinka Olajide, Tianna Eyakpobeyan, Favour Ofili, and Tima Godbless successfully qualified for Paris Olympics

The Nigerian women's 4x100m squad have qualified for the Paris Olympic Games and they'll be gunning to fight for a medal ahead of Ta Lou-Smith-inspired Ivorian side.

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