Nigeria’s Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike will today begin his race in the men’s 200m event at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The 22-year-old sprinter, competing in his second World Championships, will run in lane two of heat four at 12:29 pm Nigerian time. He is aiming to reach the semi-finals for the first time in his career.
Onwuzurike is Nigeria’s last athlete to compete at this year’s championships. He comes with a personal best time of 19.76 seconds and a season’s best of 20.17 seconds, ranking him 30th in the world.
His heat is a tough one, featuring strong rivals such as Olympic and world medallist Kenneth Bednarek of the United States, who has a personal best of 19.57s, and Canada’s Jerome Blake, with a best of 19.95s.
Out of the nine sprinters in the race, only Onwuzurike, Bednarek, and Blake have run under 20 seconds. Other competitors include Abdulaziz Abdui Atafi of Saudi Arabia, Animesh Kujur of India, William Reais of Switzerland, Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa, Seunghwan Ko of Korea, and Japan’s Soshi Mizukubo.
According to the qualification rules, only the first three in each heat will advance to the next round.
