Adeshina Sets High Jump Record To Qualify For Paris Olympics

The number of Team Nigeria athletes for the upcoming Olympics continues to soar as Temitope Adeshina secured yet an Olympics ticket in the high jump category.

Adeshina secured her spot for Paris 2024 by setting a new Nigeria national record in women’s high jump at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships in US on Sunday. She scaled a height of 1.97m to claim the feat.

Apart from surpassing the international and required standard of the Olympics, she is almost equal to the 2-meter jump.

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Despite her achievement at the NCAA high jump final Adeshina rank third based on countbacks. She finished behind Rose Yeboah and Elena Kulichenko who tied for first place.

The 25 year old will be the first athlete to represent Nigeria in the high jump event at the Olympics, since Doreen Amata at the games in Rio.

She now holds the high jump indoor and outdoor national records previously held by Amata.

In June 2022, Adeshina won the silver medal in the high jump at the 2022 African Athletics Championships in St Pierre, Mauritius.

She also won the Nigerian championship high jump title in 2022 and retained her Nigerian championship title in 2023.

The Nigeian athlete joined Texas Tech University in 2023, and competing indoors in early 2024 jumped a personal best and national record height of 1.96 metres in Texas.

Meanwhile, Samuel Ogazi stormed to a massive personal best to clinch Silver with a time of 44.52 seconds.

The University of Alabama freshman who only got to the US six months ago had only most of the indoor season to settle into the new system