January 19, (THEWILL) – Rosemary Chukwuma, a Nigerian sprinter and student-athlete at a university in the BIG 12 conference, has been named Female Athlete of the Week for her outstanding performance at the Texas Tech Corky Classic.
Chukwuma set a Personal Best, School Record and World-leading time of 7.11 seconds in the 60m semis race, and followed it up with another victory in the final, clocking 7.13 seconds.
This time is not only the fastest in the world this year, but also the fastest in the NCAA and Nigeria. It also propels her to joint-eighth on the all-time Nigeria list, behind Blessing Okagbare’s 7.09 seconds. Last season, Chukwuma set a 60m PB of 7.21 seconds and ran a legal 10.99 seconds in the 100m.
She also won the BIG 12 indoor and outdoor titles in the 60m and 100m, and was an NCAA outdoor finalist. Additionally, she ran a wind-aided 10.8 seconds twice, the fastest by a female Nigerian athlete in all wind conditions. Her strong start to the season is a great indication of what she is capable of achieving this year, both indoors and outdoors.
With the bronze medallist at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships having clocked an identical time of 7.11 seconds, Chukwuma has a real chance of standing on the podium for the first time in her college career if she can maintain and improve upon this form at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
