Omo Osaghae: The Red Raider Roams Afar

Published by IAAF on March 10, 2014

The men’s 60m hurdles winner Omo Osaghae really came to win out of the blue.

A few weeks ago, he didn’t even know there was going to be an indoor season for him and now he is the world indoor champion. The 25-year-old from Lubbock, Texas, where he attended both high school and Texas Tech university – nicknamed the Red Raiders, and Osaghae was fittingly decked out in red in Sopot – has won three US indoor titles in 2011, 2013 and 2014, but Sopot 2014 was still his first major intenational competition.

Osaghae, whose father was Nigerian, continued a US winning tradition in this event at the World Indoor Championships, his being the 10th title for USA in 15 editions of the championships. Previous champions were Tonie Campbell (1987), Roger Kingdom (1989), Greg Foster (1991), Allen Johnson (1995, 2003, 2004), Terrence Trammell (2001, 2006) and Aries Merritt (2012).

“It means a lot," he said. "Coming from a university [Texas Tech] we call ourselves the Hurdle U as we produce so many All-Americans, so being able to uphold the tradition there and being able to be a representantive for the school and for the US here is beyond me."

Despite being a top hurdler in the highly competitive US collegiate system, stepping to the top of the podium is actually something of a new achievement for Osaghae. He was part of four NCAA finals during his time at Texas Tech, he was the runner-up in the indoor 60m hurdles in 2009 and then third in 2010.

Outdoors, Osaghae notched up two seventh-place finishes at the NCAA Championships in 2008 and 2011, and his best performance at the US outdoor championships is sixth place last summer. Little more than 18 months ago, he didn’t get beyond the semi-finals of the US Olympic Trials for a place on the plane to the London 2012 Olympic Games.