Kanyinsola Ajayi extended his blistering sprint streak on Monday evening with a phenomenal 9.92-second dash to claim victory in the men’s 100m at the Meeting International de Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France.
Bursting from lane five at Stade Jean Adret with a reaction time of 0.156 seconds, the 20-year-old Nigerian left behind a stacked lineup that featured five sub-10 competitors. His performance shattered the long-standing meet record of 10.02s set by Trinidad and Tobago’s Keston Bledman in 2015, with a permissible tailwind of +1.7 m/s aiding his effort.
Veteran Cameroonian sprinter Emmanuel Eseme followed in 10.04s, while Senegal’s Mamadou Sarr clinched third in 10.10s.
Great Britain’s Eugene Amo-Dadzie, who recently triumphed at the European Athletics Team Championships, finished fourth in 10.16s—just ahead of Australia’s Rohan Browning, who clocked the same time but lost on time differential.
Canada’s Jerome Blake registered 10.23s to secure sixth, ahead of South African Tsebo Matsoso (10.32s) and France’s Jimmy Vicaut (10.36s), who had strong local support.
The race marked Ajayi’s first appearance since placing fourth at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where he originally clocked 9.92s—a breakthrough time that signaled his emergence on the elite sprinting scene.
This latest performance confirms his rising dominance and consistency, placing him among the world’s fastest sprinters in 2025 and tying him with Seun Ogunkoya and Udodi Onwuzurike for fourth on Nigeria’s all-time 100m list. Only Soji Fasuba (9.85s), Divine Oduduru (9.86s), and Godson Oghenebrume (9.90s) have run faster.
The Auburn University standout now owns two of Nigeria’s top five all-time legal 100m marks—all achieved at just 20 years old. He also joins Davidson Ezinwa and Ogunkoya as the only Nigerians to record four sub-10 second runs, the second-highest tally ever by a Nigerian athlete.
Ajayi, who claimed the Nigerian 100m national crown in June 2024, reached the semi-finals of the men’s 100m at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he also featured in Nigeria’s 4x100m squad, gaining crucial international relay experience.
Earlier this year at the African Championships in Douala, Cameroon, Ajayi narrowly missed a medal in the individual 100m, finishing fourth, but anchored Team Nigeria to a silver medal in the 4x100m relay.
His indoor season was equally remarkable. At the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships in March, he posted a lifetime best of 6.48s over 60m, later following it up with a runner-up finish in Virginia Beach at 6.52s in a fiercely contested race.
