Ogunbanwo smashes 14-year old swimming record

Abiola Ogunbanwo is now the first Nigerian woman to finish the women’s 100 meters freestyle in swimming under one minute. The 17-year-old posted the new personal best of 59.74 seconds on Wednesday at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics in Japan. With the feat, she has broken a longstanding Nigerian record of 1:00.50 set by Ngozi Monu, […]

Abiola Ogunbanwo is now the first Nigerian woman to finish the women’s 100 meters freestyle in swimming under one minute.

The 17-year-old posted the new personal best of 59.74 seconds on Wednesday at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics in Japan.

With the feat, she has broken a longstanding Nigerian record of 1:00.50 set by Ngozi Monu, which had served as the benchmark since 2007.

Ogunbanwo also got Nigeria its second victory of the games, after winning heat one of women’s 100m freestyle in the swimming event.

Competing in the very first heat of the women’s 100m freestyle event, Ogunbanwo finished ahead of Andela Antunovic of Montenegro (1:00.01), Nepal’s Gaurika Singh (1:00.11), and Mineri Gomez of Guam (1:04.00).

However, her finishing time was not good enough to take her through to the semis, as it was only the 50th best time in the event.

But Ogunbanwo can hold her head up high after adding the 100m national record to the 400m freestyle and 200m breaststroke national records she currently holds.

The feat, however, could not get her a place in the semi-finals — meant for the best 16 swimmers — after she finished in an overall ranking of 48th place when the six heats were concluded.

Ogunbanwo arrived in Tokyo with a personal best of 1:00.77. She also entered the record books as only the 10th Nigerian to take part in swimming at the Olympics.