Nigerian sprinter Olayinka Olajide has climbed to eighth on Texas Tech’s all-time list in the women’s 100m after clocking a new personal best of 11.13s (+1.9 m/s) at the Texas Relays last Friday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
- +New PB lifts Olajide into Texas Tech history books
She improved her previous best by 0.02 seconds, finishing behind Page Rasmussen, who won the heat in a personal best of 11.06s.
She improved her previous best by 0.02 seconds, finishing behind Page Rasmussen, who won the heat in a personal best of 11.06s.
It was a double success for Olajide, who also featured in Texas Tech’s record-breaking 1,600m sprint medley relay.
Running the opening leg, Olajide combined with Anita Afrifa, Mekenze Kelley and Fanny Arendt to set a new school record of 3:43.95. The quartet surpassed the previous mark set in 2005 by JaToya Moore, Shereefa Lloyd, Licretia Sibley and Althea Chambers.
The 23-year-old has been in strong form this season, recording personal bests across multiple events.
She lowered her 60m personal best twice this year. In February, she ran 7.32s to finish second behind Nayla Harris of Texas–Rio Grande Valley, improving on her earlier mark of 7.33s set on January 17 at the Corky Classic.
Last week, she also opened her outdoor 200m campaign with a personal best of 23.09s at the Masked Rider Open.
Olajide broke onto Nigeria’s athletics scene in 2024, representing the country at both the African Games and the African Championships. She was also part of Nigeria’s contingent to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
At the African Games in Ghana, she won a full set of medals—bronze in the women’s 100m, silver in the 200m, and gold in the 4x100m relay, where she ran the second leg alongside Justina Eyakpobeyan, Moforehan Abinusawa and Tobi Amusan.
She continued her relay contributions at the World Relays in the Bahamas, helping Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m team secure qualification for the Paris Olympics, before adding African Championships gold in the same event in Cameroon later that year.
