USTFCCCA News & Notes
Courtesy: Jeremy O'Brien, Texas Tech Athletics April 21, 2019   

Texas Tech’s Oduduru Runs Two World Leads in One Hour in Waco

InfoZone: Oduduru No. 11 on all-time collegiate 100m list

WACO, Texas – Those in attendance at the Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco Saturday may have witnessed one of the greatest hours by a student-athlete in collegiate track and field history. They undoubtedly witnessed the greatest one-day performance by a track and field athlete in Texas Tech history.

“It was the most impressive thing I’ve seen as a coach,” said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Wes Kittley.

What led Kittley, who has coached collegiate track and field for over three decades, to make such a statement was the hour during which Divine Oduduru took commanding world leads in both the 100m and 200m.

Hoping to land a top seed at next month’s NCAA West Preliminary and improve upon his nationally sixth-ranked time, Oduduru became the first Red Raider to ever run a sub-10 100m. The Nigerian sprinter crossed in 9.94 seconds to take over as the U.S. and world leader.

Oduduru did something even more historic not 45 minutes later. The defending outdoor and indoor 200m national champion set his blocks for his first 200m of the 2019 season. Lined up against some of the Big 12’s and nation’s best, he ran a blistering 19.76 – the second-fastest time ever run by a collegiate athlete.

Oduduru is the ninth Nigerian to ever run sub-10 in the 100m, and the second to go sub-20 in the 200m.

“I worked for this,” Oduduru said. “My coaches have always been telling me that I have to get into the moment where I can feel everything. I want to say thank you to Coach [Calvin] Robinson for getting me to this point in my life and my career. We have a great team, and I want to say thank you to everyone for their love and support.”

Just 122 sprinters in history have broken the 10-second barrier in the 100m, and only 72 sprinters have gone sub-20 in the 200m. To do both within an hour is unprecedented. Oduduru, though, says it is simply the result of Robinson’s training regimen.

“It’s something we do in practice,” Oduduru said. “We run, time the rest, then come back and run another race. He [Robinson] said to just run it the way I do in practice.”

“Run, rest and run again,” Robinson said. “It’s exactly what we do in practice. We came here with the mentality of getting work in and we got it done.”