SportsNews
“Next Usain Bolt”: Nigerian teenager Divine Iheme smashes World Age 14 100m record
- British-Nigerian teenager Divine Iheme has broken the world age 14 100 metres record
- He clocked a time of 10.30 seconds, smashing the previous record held by Sachin Dennis
- The 14-year-old is the son of former Nigerian sprinters Innocent and Nkiruku Iheme
Nigerian teenager Divine Iheme has broken the world’s 100-metre record in the 14-year-old category at the National Championship in Great Britain.
Iheme is the child of former Nigerian sprinters Innocent and Nkiruku, both of whom represented Nigeria at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Divine Iheme is competing during the England U15 Track and Field Championships. Photo by MI News. Source: Getty Images
Divine represents the country of his birth, Great Britain, ditching the country of his parents like many other athletes of dual nationality have done in the past.
Divine Iheme sets world record
According to World Athletics Hub, the 14-year-old ran 100 metres in 10.30 seconds at the National Championship, beating the previous record held by Jamaican Sachin Dennis by 0.20 seconds.
https://twitter.com/wldathleticshub/status/1828053031918924005/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1828053031918924005%7Ctwgr%5E2206975f155dd3ce6eeb2ecbbf2e776954316f4b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tuko.co.ke%2Fsports%2Fathletics%2F560065-usain-bolt-nigerian-teenager-divine-iheme-smashes-world-age-14-100m-record%2F
His mother and trainer Nkiruku, speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the event, claimed Iheme, who broke the British record in 100m and 200m, set his sights on the world record and has deservedly achieved it.
“Everybody knows him as ‘Lightning’ Divine, that’s who he is. He looks at the record and says, ‘I want to beat that’,” she said.
“He says his target is to beat the world junior U15 [record]. The world junior record is 10.51, and he’s run three times 10.46, but because the wind was 0.2, it’s not legal, so he has the capacity to do that.”
The boy admitted to studying clips of the legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, and many fans believe he might eventually be the man to break Bolt’s 9.58-second record in 100 metres.
American sprinter posts snide remarks after beating Omanyala
In other news, TUKO.co.ke reported that American sprinter Fred Kerley shared a telling comment after winning the Silesia Diamond League.
The American clocked 9.87 seconds to finish ahead of Africa’s fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala, among others.
Kerley, who recently won bronze at the Olympic games in Paris, appeared far from being thrilled despite the win.
Proofreading by Mercy Nyambura Guthua, journalist and copy editor at ekwutosblog