Alaba Akintola, a sprinter from Nigeria and a student at Middle Tennessee State University, ran the 60-meter race in 6.59 seconds on Tuesday, breaking the school record that had stood for 20 years.
Akintola, who won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, began the season well at Vanderbilt in the Commodore Challenge by competing in both the 60- and 200-meter races. He won both competitions and improved his personal best in the 60-meter run.
Akintola’s time of 6.59 seconds in the 60-meter final beat his previous best time of 6.67 seconds in the event and ranks among the top five times on the 2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association top list. It is also the 13th fastest time in Nigerian history.
A 20-year-old record held by National Collegiate Athletic Association champion Mardy Scales was broken by the sprinter from Ondo with a time of 6.59 seconds in the 60-meter event. This time ranks first in C-USA and is among the Top 5 in the country.
Akintola received the Conference USA (C-USA) Athlete of the Week award as a result of his exceptional performance in the Commodore Challenge.
At the 2022 C-USA indoor Championship, Akintola not only broke a 17-year-old record but also ran a career-best time in the 200 meters (20.72 seconds), placing him first overall.
The sprinter finished victory in the 60 and 200 meter races at the Samford Bulldog Open in 2022, and she is now placed 14th in the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships with a time of 21.49 seconds in the 200 meter dash.
In the men’s 200-meter semi-finals at the NCAA OTF Outdoor Championship last year, the 21-year-old silver medalist from the African Youth Games ran a time of 20.44 seconds. He also ran 10.25 seconds in the men’s 100-meter semifinals at the NCAA OTF Championships.
On January 20 and 21, he will compete in the Vanderbilt Invitational Championship in Nashville, Tennessee, where he hopes to set even more records.
