Tima Godbless targets another big record in U.S.

Reigning double National Sports Festival sprint champion, Tima Godbless, will this weekend take her first big step towards becoming the first Nigerian woman to win the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Track and Field championships 60m title in 15 years.

Godbless, who seems to finally be fulfilling her potential after she sped to an incredible 7.08 lifetime best a fortnight ago, will be hoping to win her first Southeastern Conference (SEC) title this weekend at Texas A&M’s R.A. ‘Murray’ Fasken ’38 Indoor Track Centre in College Station, Texas.

The Nigerian sits on top of the NCAA 60m top list this season and looks the odds on favourite to win this weekend before storming the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia middle of March for the Division 1 Indoor Championships.

The first and only Nigerian woman to win the 60m title was Blessing Okagbare (7.18) in 2010.

Okagbare would kick on from there to become a household name in the world, a path Godbless would want to toe albeit with a more assuring end.

Also, at the College Station, Ella Onojuvwevwo will also be seeking her first SEC title to boost her confidence as she will also be aiming to become the first, bonafide Nigerian woman to win the NCAA indoor 400m title.

Onojuvwevwo (52.44) is ranked 23rd in the NCAA so far this season, behind another Nigerian, Chioma Nwachukwu (52.25), who is ranked 16th and will also be eager to do what Falilat Ogunkoya failed to achieve while a student-athlete at Mississippi State University.

Ogunkoya would later make history, though, as the first Nigerian woman to win a 400m medal (silver) at the World Indoor Championships (Maebashi, Japan in 1999).

Also at the Bryan-College Station in Texas, Ramot Abike Jimoh will be more than motivated to break the Nigerian 800m indoor record after cutting off a whole four seconds to set a 2:04.97 lifetime best last month in Clemson, South Carolina.

The time catapulted her to second in the Nigerian all-time list behind Abike Egbeniyi (2:03.65).

Jimoh says she wants to become the first Nigerian woman to break two minutes in the two full laps race and is keen to follow in the footsteps of her role model, Ogunkoya who raced to the top of the 400m in the world.

The 21-year old is ranked in the top 50 (46th) in the NCAA this so far season.
Culled from SportsNow.com