Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili is revived up for the 2024 adidas Atlanta City Games, held on Saturday (today) at Piedmont Park, Atlanta, per latest reports.
The 21-year-old, who specialises in the 200m, announced her readiness in a statement alongside a video on her Instagram page on Friday.
“Watch me compete at the adidas Atlanta City Games in Piedmont Park on May 18th.This will be another big milestone leading straight into this important season with the Olympics coming up soon, wrote Ofili, who recently secured a slot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as a member of the LSU track and field team, which closed out day one of the Tom Jones Invitational hosted by Florida at James G. Pressly Stadium in Gainesville.
Ofili became the second-fastest indoor 200 m runner in collegiate history (after Steiner) in February 2023, setting an even better African indoor record of 22.36 s at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Meanwhile, eight different international champions, including Olympic, world, and European champions, will take to the track at the adidas Atlanta City Games, which is North America’s only “street meet,” taking world-class track and field out of the traditional stadium and onto a temporary straightaway and into Atlanta’s Piedmont Park. It will be shown live from 4:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. EDT on both adidas’ YouTube channel and Noah Lyles’ YouTube channel.
The men’s 200m will see a clash of three different international champions, the most decorated of which is Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa. van Niekerk is a two-time world champion at 400m and won gold in the 400m at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where he set the still-standing world record of 43.03.
Van Niekerk will face stiff competition in the form of Antonio Watson of Jamaica, the reigning world champion at 400m; Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas, the 2019 World Athletics Champion at 400m; as well as Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards, the two-time Commonwealth Games Champion at 200m; and the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Champion at 400m.
Olaitan Ibrahim