I’m mentally ready, Ofili warns 200m rivals

Nigeria sprinter Favour Ofili fired a warning at other contenders in the women’s 200m at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics after winning her heat with a new season’s best of 22.24s on Sunday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Ofili put the disappointment of missing the women’s 100m behind her to make a memorable Olympic debut, beating Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith in Heat 6.

Her season’s best of 22.24s was also the second fastest time in the heats behind Gabby Thomas of the USA, who ran 22.20s.

In a post-race chat with Making of Champions, the 21-year-old looked beyond the semifinals and spoke confidently about outracing all contenders to the gold medal.

She said, “Mentally, I am ready, and I am trying to be more ready regardless of what happened.

“All I know is, when I step on the track, I’m going to cross the line before anybody else. I don’t care what you ran before coming in here; we’re all the same because we’re all Olympians.”

Thanks to the withdrawal of Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, Ofili is poised for a podium finish in the event, but she still has the new 100m champion, Julien Alfred, Thomas, and other top athletes to contend with.

She will be back on the track for the semis during the evening session of the athletics event on Monday (today).

Ofili didn’t compete in the women’s 100m due to the failure of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the Nigeria Olympic Committee to register her for the event.

She raised the alarm over the omission last Tuesday, but there was no remedy even after the intervention of Sports Minister John Enoh, who said he had launched a probe into the matter.

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