Nigeria’s fastest man Favour Ashe will lead the men’s battle for a historic gold medal in the men’s 100m as the track and field event of the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games gets underway Tuesday in Birmingham.
Since Nigeria made her debut at the Games in 1950, no Nigerian man has mounted the podium as Commonwealth champion and Ashe will lead Godson Brume and Raymond Ekevwo in the historic chase.
Ashe is the reigning Nigerian king of speed and the national leader courtesy the 9.99 seconds he ran almost two months ago at the Nigerian championships in Benin City.
The 20 year old carries the hope of Nigerians yearning for a first 100m gold after three silver medal wins by Davidson Ezinwa, Uchenna Emedolu and Olusoji Fasuba.
Ekevwo, the reigning African Games champion will need to run faster than the 9.96 seconds he ran three years ago to win the African before he can stand a chance of making the podium while Brume will also need to dip inside 10 seconds for the first time in his career to also stand a chance.
The Nigerians will however have to battle the defending champion, South Africa’s Akani Simbine and reigning fastest man in Africa Ferdinand Omanyala to get to the title.
Four years ago, Seye Ogunlewe missed making the podium by the narrowest of margins as he finished fourth behind Jamaica’s 2011 World champion, Yohan Blake after both ran 10.19 seconds in the final.
Enoch Adegoke was seventh in the race after running 10.35 seconds.
The last time a Nigerian made it to the podium was 16 years ago when Fasuba ran 10.11 seconds to finish second behind Jamaica’s Asafa Powell.
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