Former nigerian sprint star olusoji fasuba has backed rising talent kanyinsola ajayi to break the african men’s 100 meters record, following his remarkable performance at the 2025 world championships in tokyo. Ajayi, aged 21, reached the final and placed sixth with a time of 10 seconds in a field dominated by jamaica’s oblique seville, who won gold with 9.77 seconds.
Ajayi impressed earlier in the competition by running a personal best of 9.88 seconds in the heats, making him nigeria’s third fastest man in history behind fasuba and divine oduduru. He followed this with another sub-10 second performance of 9.93 seconds in the semi-finals, proving his growing consistency at the elite level. Fasuba, who last made the world championships final for nigeria in 2007, said ajayi’s talent has positioned him as a strong contender for africa’s sprinting record.
Fasuba recalled setting the african record of 9.85 seconds in 2006 before it was later broken by south africa’s akani simbine and subsequently by kenya’s ferdinand omanyala at 9.77 seconds in 2021. He expressed confidence that ajayi has the potential to surpass those marks. Ajayi’s university also hailed his achievement, celebrating his historic entry into the world’s top six sprinters at his championship debut.
