Nigerian athletics witnessed a defining moment in the early hours of Saturday as Kanyinsola Ajayi delivered one of the most remarkable sprint performances ever produced by a Nigerian athlete, shattering a national record that had stood untouched for 20 years.
Competing at the 2026 NCAA Division I East First Round track and field meet in the United States, the 21-year-old Auburn University star exploded to a stunning time of 9.84 seconds in a men's 100m quarter-final heat, carving his name into the country's sporting history.
The performance erased the long-standing Nigerian record of 9.85 seconds established by Olusoji Fasuba in May 2006. For two decades, Fasuba's mark represented the benchmark of Nigerian sprinting excellence. Ajayi has now moved the standard forward, becoming the fastest Nigerian ever over the blue-riband distance.
The achievement is the latest chapter in a rapid ascent that has transformed Ajayi from a promising talent into one of the most exciting sprinters in world athletics. His emergence on the global stage became impossible to ignore at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where he clocked 9.88 seconds in the heats. That run made him the first Nigerian in 18 years to reach the men's 100m final at the championships, before he eventually finished sixth in the final.
Ajayi's 9.84-second run currently stands as the fastest men's 100m performance recorded anywhere in the world in 2026. In doing so, he moved ahead of the previous world-leading mark set earlier in the week by Botswana's reigning 400m world champion, Collen Kebinatshipi, whose impressive venture into the shorter sprint had drawn widespread international attention.
The Nigerian's time also places him within striking distance of one of collegiate athletics' most celebrated records. The NCAA men's 100m record remains 9.82 seconds, set by American sprint star Christian Coleman while representing the University of Tennessee in 2017. Ajayi now sits just 0.02 seconds away from that landmark and has risen to become the second-fastest collegiate sprinter in United States history.
On a stage renowned for producing world-class talent, one young Nigerian delivered record-breaking runs that not only reset national standards but also placed Nigeria firmly at the centre of the international athletics conversation.
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