Kanyinsola Ajayi breaks Nigerian 100m record, eyes African m

Former African sprint king Olusoji Fasuba has thrown his weight behind Kanyinsola Ajayi to chase the African 100m record after the youngster ended his 20-year hold on the Nigerian record with a world-leading 9.84 seconds at the NCAA East Regional Championships on Friday.

Ajayi, the 20-year-old Auburn University sprinter, clocked the time with a legal wind reading of +0.4m/s to win his heat and qualify for the NCAA Championships, surpassing Fasuba’s mark of 9.85 seconds set in Doha in May 2006.

The run also moved Ajayi to the top of the 2026 world rankings and placed him ahead of a distinguished list of Nigerian sprint greats, including Divine Oduduru, Seun Ogunkoya and Davidson Ezinwa.

Rather than lament the loss of a record he had held for two decades — one that also stood as the African record for 15 years before Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala clocked 9.77 seconds in 2021 — Fasuba embraced the breakthrough warmly.

“Not every day does one wake up to see a long-standing record broken,” Fasuba wrote on Facebook.

“Twenty years ago, in Doha, I ran 9.85s, a performance that stood as the Nigerian record for two decades and also stood as the African record for 15 years. To have held those records for that length of time was a great honour and one of the proudest moments of my career.”

The former record holder revealed he had tipped Ajayi’s rise two years ago, writing, “Two years ago, I predicted that this young talent would be one of the athletes capable of breaking my Nigerian 100m record, and today he has done exactly that. Congratulations, Kanyinsola Ajayi.”

Fasuba said the achievement carried meaning beyond the record itself.

“The joy in my heart knows no bounds because this is the kind of improvement I have been clamouring for from Nigerian men’s sprinting. Records are not meant to stand forever. They are meant to inspire the next generation to dream bigger, work harder and push the boundaries even further,” he wrote.

He added that the possibility of Nigeria reclaiming the African record was now realistic, “What excites me most is not just the record itself, but what it represents.

It shows that Nigerian sprinting is progressing and that our athletes can compete with the very best in the world. The possibility of Nigeria taking back the African record is now realistic once again, and Kanyinsola has shown that he has the talent to chase that target.”

Speaking after his historic run, Ajayi said breaking the national record had long been a personal ambition.

“I have always been dreaming to break the national record. Shoutout to Olusoji Fasuba,” he told Making of Champions, before adding that his focus remained firmly on self-improvement. “I am not thinking about Jelani Watkins. It is me versus myself. I am not thinking about anybody else.”