Divine Oduduru

Senior career He led off the Nigerian 4x100 metres relay team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, a team supported by former American athletes, Monzavous Edwards and Mark Jelks, who were running for Nigeria in their first international relay.

Due to illness, he pulled out of the 2015 Nigerian Championships and could not defend his 200 m title. He, however, bounced back for the All-Africa Games in Brazzaville. Oduduru ran a PB of 20.45 s into a headwind of 1.2 m/s to win the silver medal behind Ivorian sprinter, Hua Wilfried Koffi. His team mate and 2015 Nigerian champion Tega Odele placed third. Oduduru was selected for the 200 m at the 2016 African Championships in Durban. After posting the second-fastest time in the semifinals, he did not run in the finals due to injury.

At the 2018 Michael Johnson Invitational meet in Waco, Texas, Divine improved his personal best in the 100 m to 10.10 s, improving the Texas Tech school record by 0.01 s. A year later at the same meet he improved his personal bests and set world-leading times of 9.94 s and 19.76 s, in the 100 m and 200 m respectively. His time in the 200 m broke the national record of 19.84 s set by Francis Obikwelu in 1999.

During 2019, he focused mainly on collegiate competition. He set a personal best in the 60-meter dash at the 2019 Big 12 Indoor Championships, running 6.52 seconds for the distance to win the regional title. He also won the 200 m Big 12 Indoor title. At the 2019 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships he won the 200 m title and placed seventh in the 60 m final. At the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, he won the 100 m in 9.99 seconds, having broken the 10-second barrier for the first time at the earlier Michael Johnson Invitational meet. He also helped the Texas Tech Red Raiders to the 4 × 100 m relay title. At the 2019 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, he won a sprint double in the 100 m and 200 m, as well as taking third in the 4 × 100 m relay. His 100 m time of 9.86 seconds was the fastest in the world at that point of the season, and his 200 m time of 19.73 seconds was a championships record.

Oduduru made his debut on the 2019 IAAF Diamond League circuit at the 2019 Herculis meet, but finished in last place. The ban is set to run until February 2029 with all of his results from July 12, 2021 were disqualified. The investigation was connected to the case of Blessing Okagbare, his compatriot who was banned for 11 years in 2022.

Statistics Information from World Athletics profile.

Commonwealth Games Glasgow, Scotland

World Relays Nassau, Bahamas

African Championships Durban, South Africa

Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

National competitions NCAA results from Track & Field Results Reporting System.

Track records

As of September 2024, Oduduru holds the following track records for 100 metres and 200 metres.

100 metres

LocationTimeWindspeedm/sDate Norman 9.99 + 0.3 12/05/2019 Waco 9.94 + 0.8 20/04/2019

200 metres

LocationTimeWindspeedm/sDate Austin, Texas 19.73 + 0.8 07/06/2019 Waco 19.76 + 0.8 20/04/2019