Nigerian sprinters Olayinka Olajide and Justina Eyakpobeyan have completed their switches to the National Christian College Athletic Association in the USA, joining the long list of Nigerian athletes schooling and competing in the system, Nigeria Sports Extra reports.
Olajide, 21, has joined Texas Tech, which also has high jumper Temitope Adeshina and long jumper Ruth Usoro in its fold, while Eyakpobeyan, 17, was signed by the University of Southern California.
“Welcome to the Trojan Family, Justina Eyakpobeyan,” the school posted via X.
“The Paris Olympian has picked up gold medals at the Senior African Games, Senior African Championships, Commonwealth Youth Games, and African U-18 Championships.”
Both athletes were part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay team at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
While Ojajide didn’t get a competitive feel of the track inside the Stade de France at the Olympics, Eyakpobeyan ran the first leg during the heats, but the quartet failed to reach the final despite running a season’s best time of 42.70s.
Olajide and Eyakpobeyan were integral to the women’s 4x100m in the 2024 season, winning gold at the Africa Games and the African Championships, as well as qualifying for the Olympics.
Individually, Olajide has enjoyed a debut season on the track, winning gold, silver, and bronze in the 4x4100m relay, 200m, and 100m races at the African Games in March. She has a personal best of 11.19s in the 100m and 23.18s in the 200m.
Eyakpobeyan also has a season’s best of 11.24s in the 100m and recently won the CAA Region II Senior Championships 100m title, outracing Olajide in the process.
