Sprint sensation Kanyinsola Ajayi has made a big name for himself in the country’s athletics history after breaking the mens 100m national record at the 2026 NCAA Division I East First Round track and field meet in the United States.
The 21-year-old Auburn University athlete ran fast clocking 9.84 seconds in one of the quarter-final heats on Saturday in the Nigerian record in the event. Kanyinsola Ajayi’s performance is better than the mark of 9.85 seconds set by former sprint star Olusoji Fasuba in May 2006. This old record had been standing for two decades.
This is another achievement for Kanyinsola Ajayi as he is rising fast on the sprinting stage. He had shown his potential to break records in years, record has it that he did well at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where he ran 9.88 seconds in the heat, became the first Nigerian in 18 years to qualify for the mens 100m final and finished sixth in the final.
Kanyinsola Ajayis latest performance makes him the fastest man in the world so far in 2026. He is faster than Botswana’s 400m world champion, Collen Kebinatshipi. Collen Kebinatshipi had run fast over a shorter distance earlier this week.
At the moment, Ajayi’s 9.84-second finish puts him close to the NCAA mens 100m record of 9.82 seconds set by American sprinter Christian Coleman in 2017. Christian Coleman was competing for the University of Tennessee at that time.
Kanyinsola Ajayi is now the fastest collegiate athlete in United States history, it was also a day for Nigeria, in the men’s 400m event as the likes of Samuel Ogazi did well with another record-breaking performance.
Samuel Ogazi ran fast, set a new Nigerian record of 43.82 seconds in the men’s 400m race, he also broke his national mark and improved on the world-leading time he had posted earlier this month.
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