Kanyinsola Ajayi blazes to 9.92s win in France, breaking a nine-year meet record with ease.
The 20-year-old Nigerian now ranks among the country’s fastest sprinters of all time.
Kanyinsola Ajayi has once again proven he belongs among the sprinting elite, clocking a stunning 9.92 seconds to win the men’s 100 meters at the Meeting International Sotteville-lès-Rouen in France. The performance not only matched his personal best but also shattered a nine-year-old meet record, cementing his place among Nigeria’s fastest sprinters of all time.
The 20-year-old Nigerian stormed out of lane five on Monday evening, crossing the finish line well ahead of a competitive field under a legal tailwind of +1.7 m/s. The previous meet record of 10.02 seconds, set by Trinidad and Tobago’s Keston Bledman in 2015, was decisively broken as Ajayi surged past his rivals.
Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme claimed second place with a time of 10.04 seconds, while Senegal’s Mamadou Sarr secured third in 10.10 seconds. Great Britain’s Eugene Amo-Dadzie and Australia’s Rohan Browning were tied at 10.16 seconds, rounding out the top five. Canada’s Jerome Blake (10.23 s), South Africa’s Tsebo Matsoso (10.32 s), and France’s Jimmy Vicaut (10.36 s) completed the top eight.
Ajayi’s win in France follows his impressive showing at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where he also clocked 9.92 seconds to place fourth in a fiercely contested final. By replicating that time on two separate occasions within weeks, Ajayi has demonstrated not only talent but also an elite level of consistency rarely seen in sprinters his age.
The victory elevates Ajayi to joint-fourth on Nigeria’s all-time list of fastest 100 m runners, alongside sprint icons Seun Ogunkoya and Udodi Onwuzurike. Only Olusoji Fasuba (9.85 s), Divine Oduduru (9.86 s), and Godson Oghenebrume (9.90 s) have gone faster.
Even more impressively, Ajayi now joins an exclusive club of Nigerian sprinters along with Davidson Ezinwa and Ogunkoya, who have recorded four sub-10-second races in their careers.
His résumé already boasts a national 100m title won in June 2024, an Olympic Games semi-final berth in Paris, and a silver medal in the 4×100m relay at the African Championships in Douala. These milestones, combined with a standout indoor season in which he ran a personal best of 6.48 seconds in the 60m at the NCAA Indoor Championships and followed up with a 6.52-second run in Virginia Beach, point to a promising future on the global stage.
Analysts say Ajayi’s progression suggests he is not just a rising star but a serious contender for international sprint medals. His explosive starts, impressive top-end speed, and mental composure in tight races are qualities that mirror those of some of Nigeria’s greatest athletes.
With the 2025 World Athletics Championships and other major meets on the horizon, the question now is whether Kanyinsola Ajayi can transition from promise to dominance.
