Kanyinsola Ajayi Breaks Meet Record to Win Men’s 100m in France

Nigeria’s Kanyinsola Ajayi ran a spectacular race to win the 100m event at the Meeting de Sotteville in France with a time of 9.92 seconds (1.7m/s) on Monday, July 7, 2025.

The 20-year-old sprinter who ran from lane five at the Stade Jean Adret with a reaction time of 0.156 seconds, got off the blocks in blazing speed and maintained the momentum and gap to his competitors, all through the race, beating the meet record of 10.02s, previously set by Trinidad and Tobago’s Keston Bledman, nine years ago, on Monday, July 6, 2015.

He also equalled his Personal best set at the NCAA Championships on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, outpacing a strong field including Cameroon’s Veteran Emmanuel Eseme who ran 10.04s and Senegal’s Mamadou Sarr in 10.10s. With his time of 9.92s, the Olympian ties Davidson Ezinwa and Seun Ogunkoya with the second most sub 10s by a Nigerian athlete.

Ajayi, who left Lagos in January 2024, to further his education and career at Auburn University in the United States on a student-athlete scholarship, has in recent years, etched in name among the top athletes in the country and is well underway to dominating on the international scene.

Ajayi’s athletics career properly began in 2021 when he was scouted by his grassroots coach, Olopade Lawal, in Ikorodu and was entered into the 2021 Maltina School Games – his first competition – he won both sprints at the event. In 2022, Ajayi clocked a massive Personal Best (PB) of 10.26s at the second AFN All-Comers meet at Yabatech Sports Center.

He won a gold medal in the 100 metres at the 2023 African Athletics U20 Championships in Ndola, Zambia. At that championships he also won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay.

On Sunday, June 16, 2024, Ajayi emerged as the champion at the 2024 Nigerian National Championships 100 metres event , held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin, with a time of 10.14 seconds. Six days later, Ajayi clocked a time of 10.21s to finish fourth in the 100 metres at the African Championships in Douala, Cameroon, missing out on a podium finish by the whiskers, but medalled in the 4 × 100 m relay, winning silver.

The Nigerian carried on his momentum to the global stage, where he reached the semi-finals of the men’s 100m event at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and also represented the Country in the 4x100m relay event.