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The long and triple jumper is steadily rising through the ranks as one of Africa's best female jumpers in history.
In one of the best performances by a jumper in African indoor history, Ruth Usoro leaped to a massive Personal Best (PB) and world-leading mark of 6.87m to win the women's long jump final at the Texas Tech Open and Multis.
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Most importantly, the mark surpassed the World Championships qualifying standard of 6.85m, meaning she has hit the automatic qualifying standard for the most renowned world athletics championships, taking place in Budapest later this year.
Her distance also moves her to second on the all-time African indoor list behind Chioma Ajunwa's African Record (AR) of 6.97m and ahead of Ese Brume's 6.85m (Silver medal-winning mark at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade last year).
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Her series was so good that she did 6.78m in her second round, 6.73m in the fourth round, and finally 6.87m in the fifth round.
In 2020, she became the first Nigerian jumper in history to qualify for the Olympics in both the long and triple jump events. She repeated same feat last year at the World Championships in Oregon.
She got to the final of the long jump, while in the triple jump she was a finalist at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, finishing eighth.
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With her outstanding season opener in Texas, Usoro shows she's in great form to attain a similar World Championships feat by qualifying for both events again, as the triple jump is seen as her stronger event.
Also, she proves to be steadily rising on the list of Africa's best female jumpers and can smash her PBs as the season progresses, which bodes for even better performances outdoors.
Perhaps this year will finally be when Usoro comes of age by being not just the best in the continent but challenging for medals at the global stage.
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