The way forward for Canadian ladies’s 100m sprinting is sky-high, led by the spectacular performances of 16-year-old Jorai Oppong-Nketiah of Ottawa. On Friday, within the U20 100m ladies’s semi-finals on the Canadian Olympic Trials, Oppong-Nketiah set a brand new U18 nationwide file with a blazing time of 11.38 seconds (+0.9 m/s), placing her title within the dialog for the Canadian Olympic ladies’s 4x100m relay crew.
Oppong-Nketiah got here near bettering her junior nationwide file within the U20 remaining, clocking 11.39 seconds right into a headwind (-0.7 m/s). Regardless of the difficult circumstances, she dominated the ultimate, successful by almost half a second over opponents two to 3 years older.
This marks the second time Oppong-Nketiah has damaged the U18 Canadian 100m file this season. She first shattered the file on the Bob Vigars Invitational in London, Ont., final month, ending second within the ladies’s elite 100m with a time of 11.51 seconds, simply earlier than turning 16.
In keeping with Ottawa Sports activities Pages, Oppong-Nketiah was first launched to trace and subject in Grade 4 when one in every of her elementary college academics, recognizing her pure pace, inspired her to check out for the observe crew.
Oppong-Nketiah’s successful time on the Canadian Trials ranks because the fifth quickest by a U18 lady on the planet this yr, and the eighth quickest by a Canadian feminine (general). Her achievement has sparked discussions about her potential inclusion within the Canadian Paris 2024 ladies’s 4x100m relay pool. She is at the moment guided by Athletics Canada nationwide relay coach Glenroy Gilbert and Gordon Cave with the Ottawa Lions Monitor and Area Membership.
🚨CANADIAN U18 RECORD🚨
Jorai Oppong-Nketiah as simply set a brand new 🇨🇦 U18 file and U20 Championship file within the heats of the 100 metres together with her blazing time of 11.38 seconds!Jorai’s time additionally eclipses Farah Jacques’ Membership file of 11.49 seconds set in 2016.
WOW WOW WOW pic.twitter.com/PPC8D2IQS3
— Ottawa Lions TFC (@OttawaLionsTFC) June 28, 2024
In keeping with the Athletics Canada Choice Standards for the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games: “No athlete youthful than 16 on December 31, 2024 (born in 2009 or later) might compete within the Olympic Video games.” Oppong-Nketiah simply meets this criterion, having been born in June 2008. Even when she isn’t chosen for Paris, her expertise and record-breaking performances counsel she shall be a future title to look at in ladies’s sprinting as we flip towards the L.A. 2028 Olympics.
The 2024 Bell Canadian Olympic Monitor and Area Trials are going down from June 26-30 on the Complexe Sportif Claude-Robillard in Montreal. All our motion and protection is delivered to you by Canadian Working and New Stability Canada. Comply with us on Twitter on Instagram for all issues Canadian Olympic Trials and up-to-date unique information and content material.
