By Daily Sports Nigeria on August 13, 2025

In Abeokuta, a city steeped in history and framed by ancient rocks, 16-year-old Atinuke Onabiyi is quietly mastering the art of precision. While the streets ring with the sounds of football and bustling trade, she spends her best hours in the calm intensity of a shooting range with her eyes narrowed, breath measured, and finger steady on the trigger.

Her journey into this niche sport began in 2021, with what seemed like an ordinary family outing.

“My dad took us to Ijeja Stadium and told me to pick a sport I would like to do,” she recalled to PUNCH Sports Extra.

“While walking around, I saw the shooting range for the first time. I thought, ‘What is this sniper doing here?’ They told me it was called shooting. I developed an interest immediately.”

It was no passing fancy. Onabiyi’s love for marksmanship had been planted years earlier through action films, where scenes of trained shooters had stirred an unlikely ambition to join the military.

“I still want to go to military school,” she said, the determination clear in her voice. “That has been my dream since I was six years old. My plan is that after university, I will join the Nigerian Defence Academy.”

For now, she channels that military-level discipline into her 10-metre air rifle training. Balancing sport with academics in Ekiti requires ingenuity.

“At school, I do mental training, reviewing what I practise physically in my head, working on breath control, watching videos, and visualising my performance. When I return home, I apply it physically during training,” she explained.

The results have been striking. Her medal record tells a story of locked-on discipline. At the 2021 National Youth Games in Ilorin, she won silver in both individual and team events. Two years later in Asaba, she repeated the silver in the individual but won gold with her team.

She also earned silver in doubles at both the 2023 National Sports Festival in Asaba and the Chief of Naval Staff Championship.

Then came 2024, her breakthrough year. At the National Youth Games in Asaba, she captured her first individual gold in shooting, setting a national record alongside another gold in the team event.

“I was so excited,” she remembered. “The girl I competed against for gold was very good, but I thank God for giving me the strength to win. It was my first individual gold in shooting after winning silver many times.”

Yet shooting is not her only field of mastery. In 2021, she picked up a bow for the first time and stepped into archery, a sport she describes as “similar to shooting, except you use a bow and arrow”. Success came quickly. Her medal haul began with a pair of silvers at the 2022 National Archery Championships in the barebow category, both in the individual and team events.

The following year, she struck gold in the individual event and silver in the team event at the Edo State Archery Competition, and added another gold in the team event plus silver individually at the 2023 Olowu School Championships in Abeokuta, where she also earned a Well Behaved Archer award.

In 2024, she returned to the Olowu Championships to take individual gold, team silver, and the coveted Best Archer of the Year title. That same year, she won silver at the Zen Archery International Open Championship in Lagos before extending her dominance in 2025 with bronze at the Zen Championship, plus three more gold medals at the BASWAG competition in Lagos.

Remarkably, she has never entered an archery tournament without winning a medal. Still, when asked which sport she would choose for the Olympics, her answer came without hesitation.

“I love both, but if I had to choose, I would pick shooting,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to meet an Indian female shooter I admire and compete at Olympic standard.”

The path, however, is not without its challenges. Shooting is an expensive sport, and Onabiyi admits that archery is easier to train for individually. Her ambition is to purchase her bow and arrow for practice at school, where training space is limited.

“Just give us more time and space to train,” she said of her school’s role. “The school has strict movement rules, so extra training time would help a lot.”

Support from her inner circle has been crucial. “My family, especially my dad, has been very supportive; he’s always involved. My mum also supports me whenever I need anything. My coach challenges me to compete with stronger opponents to improve. My teammates motivate me when I’m down, and my friends encourage me with promises and prayers before competitions.”

Her rise has not gone unnoticed at the national level. Recently, she received her first call-up to the Nigerian team, a chance to step onto the international stage.

“It’s a great achievement because it allows me to compete for my country,” she said. “I’ve not yet trained with the team or competed internationally, but I’m looking forward to the African Youth Games and the Youth Olympics.”

Wearing Nigeria’s green and white, she believes, will be more than a uniform. “It will be a moment of pride. I always imagine the joy of people praising me for winning gold for Nigeria.”

In five years, she sees herself competing against the world’s best, particularly the Chinese shooters who dominate global rankings. Beyond sport, her competitive nature would still have found an outlet, perhaps in military service, where precision and discipline are equally vital.

Her sporting idols are two elite shooters, China’s Wang Zifei and India’s Aujum Moudgil, who inspire her with their skill and mental strength. Away from the range, her biggest role model is her mother, a figure she admires for her resilience and support.

For Onabiyi, the journey is only just beginning. The medals, silver or gold, are milestones, but the real target is yet to come. It is a goal she frames in the simplest possible terms: achieving her personal bests and one day stepping onto the Olympic stage.

“I’m determined to keep training until I achieve my personal bests and participate in the Olympics,” she said.

Source Punch Ng

Posted August 13, 2025

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