One of the three competitors, Favour Ashe, Alaba Akintola, or Raymond Ekevwo, will try to become the first Nigerian sprinter to win the title of fastest man at the Commonwealth Games.
No Nigerian man has won the 100-meter gold medal at the Commonwealth Games since the country entered the competition. The group of silver medals won by Davidson Ezinwa (10.05s in 1990), Uchenna Emedolu (10.11s in 2002), and Olusoji Fasuba were the closest the nation has come (10.11s in 2006).
Will one of the Ashe, Akintola, or Ekevwo trio break the curse and achieve greatness like Tobi Amusan did at the World Athletics Championships?
Ashe, the current 100-meter champion from Nigeria, seemed to have the best chance of making that history in his debut. The 20-year-old ran the quickest time (10.00) by a Nigerian in the tournament in his opening race of the 100-meter category at the World Athletics Championships last week, but he was unable to proceed past the semifinals.
The University of Tennessee freshman hopes to go under 10 seconds once more in order to have a shot of creating history after breaking the record earlier this year at the Nigerian championships for the 100-meter distance.
