Nigeria’s sensation Favour Ofili has taken a significant step toward her Olympic dream by qualifying for the women’s 200m final at Paris 2024. Ofili finished second in her heat with a season’s best of 22.05s, just behind Julien Alfred, who won the race with a time of 21.98s.

The 21-year-old athlete, who hails from Delta State, was determined to showcase her talents at the Games despite not being registered for the women’s 100m by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) officials.

With her qualification, Ofili becomes the first Nigerian woman to reach the 200m final in 28 years. The last time a Nigerian made it to the final in this event was in Atlanta 1996, when Mary Onyali won a bronze medal—a year before Ofili was even born.

In other news, wrestler Blessing Oborududu lost her semi-final match against Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the women’s freestyle 68kg category with a score of 3-1. The 35-year-old Nigerian had a challenging start to the Games, conceding two points in the first three minutes against Canada’s Linda Morais. However, she made a remarkable comeback, scoring six unanswered points to secure an 8-2 victory and advance to the competition’s penultimate round. Oborududu then defeated France’s Koumba Larroque 6-2 in a fiercely contested quarterfinal bout, overcoming an early deficit to secure her spot in the semi-finals.