'I've never seen anyone move like him': Olympic sprinter making waves on U of R track team
'I've never seen anyone move like him': Olympic sprinter making waves on U of R track team
Usheoritse “Dushos” Itsekiri is in his second season with the University of Regina track and field team. Itsekiri was a member of Nigeria’s Olympic team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
This season, Itsekiri continues to prove he has Olympic talent as he is currently ranked first in U-Sports in the Canada for the 60 metre dash on an indoor track.
This past week he set a new personal best of 6.62 seconds.
“[It felt] electrifying and that’s the thing it’s electrifying because you never know when it’s going to come,” Itsekiri said on setting his new personal best. “I did the 300 [metre] and I was exhausted from it. I didn’t have anything left in the tank for the 60. But I was like, ‘I love this track, I had a PB last year here and that’s why I come here. So I was like, oh go for it’.”
“I went for it and it just came, it didn’t feel as fast as I would think but it did feel good,” he laughed.
“There is just nothing like Dushos, his personality, his athleticism, I’ve never seen anyone move like him,” Chad Kichula, University of Regina’s track and field interim head coach, told CTV News.
“He is just a competitor and I don’t know if we’ll ever see the likes of him again.”
Itsekiri grew up in Nigeria where he began as a soccer player before he discovered his love for track.
“We played soccer probably every day and I was always the fastest person on the pitch so whenever we would do our inter-house sports in Nigeria I would always win or come second. I was always a fast guy. My brother hooked me up with a team in a stadium. I went there and met the coach and since then it’s been a sweet, jolly ride,” Itsekiri explained.
Itsekiri came to Regina in January of last year. Prior to his move, he had never even been to Canada before.
“My first time surviving the winter I got a couple of heaters in the house,” he joked. “It’s been really good. The people around here are really nice and they’ve made it nice for me.”
In his first season with U of R he definitely made a mark. He earned a gold in the 60 metre dash at the 2022 U Sports Track and Field Championships. An event he had also won gold in at the Canada West Championships.
He added bronze to his medal collection with a third place finish in the 4 x 200 metre relay at Canada West as well.
The second year Masters of Engineering student qualified for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics after hitting the standard time at the African Games that year.
He said it was a day he will never forget. Itsekiri plans on making a run for the 2024 games in Paris.
“I saw how things went in 2021 and I’m trying to get everything settled. 2024 is the goal and just try and get there. Try and make a statement, try and make it count this time,” he said.
Itsekiri is not the only member of the U of R track team that has their sights set on the Olympics.
First year business student and team member, Storm Zablocki, who hails from Prince Albert has already made a name for himself in U Sports.
Zablocki is currently ranked third in the 60m with a personal best of 6.74.
“I just wanted to do the best I could for my first year. Not a lot of expectation going in, knowing that it was a big adjustment but you know I’ve been happy with it so far,” Zablocki said.
When asked about seeing his name at the top of the U Sports rankings, Zablocki noted the work it took to get there.
“Definitely kind of a relief almost. I definitely worked hard for it and just keep moving forward,” he said.
“He’s a very polite young man, hardworking, and very focused,” Kichula said, referring to Zablocki. “A lot of athletes, they get caught up in times and you don’t want to just get caught up in statistics. Storm doesn’t really seem to focus on that. He just wants to run his race, which is really important.”
However Zablocki is focused on what it will take to get him to the international level.
“The Olympics are my number one [goal] since I’ve been a kid,” Zablocki explained.
It helps that he is training alongside Olympian Itsekiri, who acts as a source of inspiration, according to Zablocki.
“I think Dushos has been like my number one guy I look up to right now. Even amongst all of the other professionals,” he told CTV News.
The duo will compete at the Canada West Track and Field Championships in Saskatoon later this month and the U Sport Championships in March before they gear up for the outdoor season.
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to meet with Vladimir Putin in a political boost for the isolated Russian president after the International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes in Ukraine.
Even at one of the tallest natural peaks on Earth, humans have left their mark in a trail of bacteria as researchers have found germs from coughing and sneezing that have been potentially preserved for centuries on Mount Everest.
Shares of Credit Suisse plunged 60.5 per cent on Monday after banking giant UBS said it would buy its troubled Swiss rival for almost US$3.25 billion in a deal orchestrated by regulators to try to stave off further turmoil in the global banking system.
One person has been confirmed dead and six people remain missing as police continue to search for victims after a fire swept through a building in Old Montreal on Thursday.
The Town of Strathmore and Siksika Nation hosted the first Lead By Example Powwow this weekend in honour of a young Indigenous man who was shot to death four years ago.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in 'What Happened to Ben' on CTV W5.
March 20 marks the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and, after a long, grey winter, Torontonians can soon look forward to warmer temperatures and sunnier days.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
The Rideau McDonald's Farewell March brought people from across the city, some dressed in costumes, who wanted to say goodbye to a part of what they say makes Ottawa Ottawa.
If you are yearning to walk the trails around Mud Lake in the Britannia Conservation Area, be aware there are wild turkeys looking for mates. A gang of three have been chasing and pecking at visitors to the nature trail for weeks.
Vancouver firefighters were called to the Downtown Eastside Sunday evening after a fire destroyed multiple tents in an encampment and spread to a building near Main and East Hastings streets.
An international student was swarmed and beaten by a group of people who ripped off his turban and dragged him across the sidewalk by his hair in Kelowna, B.C., Friday evening, according to a local politician.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Two families were displaced early Monday morning after a fire ripped through a building in Montreal's Quartier Latin. No one was injured, according to the Montreal fire department (SIM).
Mounties in Port McNeill violated a suspect's Charter rights by failing to allow him to contact a lawyer promptly after his 2019 drug trafficking arrest, a judge has ruled.
The University of Prince Edward Island Faculty Association says its staff has gone on strike after what it says are failed attempts to enter additional negotiations with the university's administration.
The student union president at Cape Breton University said food insecurity has become a concern for many students and the on-campus food bank cannot keep up with demand.
The University of Prince Edward Island coach is defending the team’s actions, after the University of Alberta team skated off the ice without handshakes at the U Sports Men’s Hockey National Championship in Charlottetown.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
A community is in mourning after a 10-year-old girl was killed earlier this week when flames tore through her family’s camping trailer southeast of Brantford.
St. Patrick's day street parties in Waterloo, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau making an announcement in Guelph, and a woman charged with defrauding doulas round out the most-read stories of the week.
