Nigerian sprint sensation Favour Ashe has emerged as the world’s fastest man of 2024 so far after a remarkable 100m performance at the Florida Relays in Gainesville.
The 21-year-old Auburn University student-athlete, dubbed the “Nigerian Nightmare”, produced a scorching time of 9.99 seconds in the men’s 100m final on Saturday. His blazing run, aided by a legal 0.7 m/s tailwind, saw him blow away the competition and etch his name into the history books.
Ashe’s electrifying 9.99 clocking not only gives him the world-leading time for 2024 to date, but also seals his qualification for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games, having surpassed the 10.00 second qualifying standard.
The talented Nigerian narrowly missed matching his personal best of 9.96 seconds set last year, but significantly bettered that season’s opening mark of 10.09 seconds. His sizzling performance served notice of his medal credentials for Paris and other major championships in 2024.
Jamarion Stubbs of the United States finished a distant second in 10.18 seconds, while fellow American Jamal Miller took third in 10.19. But on this day, the limelight firmly belonged to the “Nigerian Nightmare.”
Ashe’s triumph is made even more remarkable by the challenges he overcame in recent months. The sophomore sprinter’s indoor season was hampered by injury setbacks, leaving doubts over his form entering the outdoor campaign.
Those concerns were emphatically dismissed in Gainesville, as Ashe proved his full fitness and hunger to build on the incredible potential he showed as a freshman last year.
