Deji Ogeyingbo wrote this piece on Favour Ashe, a fine new generation Nigerian athlete, who will be opening his indoor season at Auburn University this coming weekend.
Favour Ashe’s chance to blossom in the NCAA circuit after his impressive first season
They say the first time is always the hardest. Getting into a new country, bedding in well into one of the toughest running circuits, and breaking records are feats very few sprinters can boast of in their debut year. Not so much for Nigeria’s Favour Ashe. He was on a different level from his contemporaries in 2022, one would have thought he grew up in the United States.
Ashe whose track career dates back to 2018 when he was discovered by Making of Champions had a meteoric rise since then before he teamed up with the University of Tennessee in the winter of 2021.
The 20-year-Old didn’t take much time to bed in as in his first race as a Vol in the last weekend of January, Ashe posted the fourth-fastest 60m time in Tennessee’s history when he clocked 6.58 over the 60m at Clemson’s Bob Pollock Meet. Only former Vols Coleman, Leonard Scott, and Gatlin are ahead of Ashe in the all-time school standings then.
The performance was nothing short of astonishing as it was his first-time racing over the distance. At the time only 22 Africans had run faster in history. That display saw him named Southeastern Conference Male Freshman of the Week.
Two weeks later at Arkansas’ Tyson Invite, Ashe dropped a 6.52s in his preliminary run. This time, he broke the Tennessee freshman record previously held by Scott at 6.56, which he set in 1999. Ashe’s finish moved him up to third all-time in Tennessee history in the event, behind Scott’s 6.48 set in 2001 and Christian Coleman’s school-record run of 6.45 achieved in 2017.
It didn’t take long for him to improve that mark at the NCAA Indoor Championships, winning his heat in 6.51s and going on to place 3rd in the final with 6.55s.
This year, Ashe will be starting his indoor season with Auburn University having transferred from Tennessee. When he begins his indoor season for one of the South’s largest universities this month, all eyes will be fixed on him lowering his Personal Best of 6.51s he set last year.
Ashe currently stands shoulder-to-shoulder with African sprinting greats like Frankie Fredricks, and Davison Ezinwa with his current PB, while former African Record holder Olusoji Fasuba sits above him with his 6.49s time…
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