Tokyo Olympics: 17-year-old Nigerian, Ogunbanwon Makes History in Women’s 100m Freestyle

Nigerian Swimming representative, Abiola Ogunbanwon made history at the Tokyo Olympics by winning the heat 1 of Women’s 100m Freestyle.

Ogunbanwon bested the rest of the field in 59.74 seconds with Antunovic Andela of Montenegro coming in second in a time of 1:00.01 minutes.

The 17-year-old became the first Nigerian woman ever to finish this event in less than one minute.

She also surpassed Ngozi Monu’s record of 1:15 m achieved at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Despite the historic feat, her winning time fell short of the best 16 times required to progress into the semi-final,

Ogunbanwon came on the scene representing Nigeria at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships held in Gwangju, South Korea.

She also competed in the women’s 100 metre freestyle and women’s 200 metre freestyle events. In both events, she failed to advance to the semi-finals.