Nigeria’s top track and field stars in 2025 News

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Nigeria’s top track and field stars in 2025

By Daily Sports Nigeria on September 22, 2025

As the 2025 World Athletics Championships mark the end of the season for Nigerian athletes and their global counterparts, ABIODUN ADEWALE assesses the country’s top performers in the just-concluded season

Ezekiel Nathaniel (400m Hurdles)

Nathaniel has been on the Nigerian athletics scene for a while, at least since 2022, but the year 2025 was his breakthrough season. This season, he has broken the African indoor record twice, the Nigerian record multiple times, won the NCAA title and also took a medal in the Diamond League.

In Tokyo, Nathaniel broke the Nigerian record in the men’s 400m hurdles final again, running 47.11s to finish fourth. Rai Benjamin of the United States won gold in 46.52s, adding the world title to his Olympic crown. Alison dos Santos of Brazil took silver in 46.84, while Abderrahman Samba of Qatar settled for bronze in 47.06.

He had earlier made history by being the first Nigerian man in 38 years to reach the 400m hurdles final at the World Championships.

Before Tokyo 2025, he also medaled in the Diamond League Final (bronze) in the 400m hurdles in late August.

Tobi Amusan (100m hurdles)

World record holder, Amusan had a point to prove in Tokyo, and she did it by winning a silver, which is Nigeria’s only medal at the 2025 World Championships.

Amusan won silver in the women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 12.29s in the final, winning her first global medal since the 2023 Diamond League final. She was narrowly beaten by Ditaji Kambundji (Switzerland), who set a national record of 12.24s for the gold.

Before Tokyo, some of Amusan’s best performances came in the Rabat Diamond League, where she ran 12.45s to set a meet record in May and the Paris Diamond League, where she ran her season’s best and second-fastest time of 12.24s in June.

The 28-year-old joins Blessing Okagbare and Ese Brume as the only Nigerians with two World Championships medals.

Konyinsola Ajayi (100m)

Ajayi has been a revelation since hugging the spotlight in 2022. He would have loved to debut at the World Championships in 2023, but his appearance in 2025 was worth the wait, although he finished sixth in the men’s 100m final – clocking 10.00s in a tense final.

In Tokyo, Ajayi became the first Nigerian to make the men’s 100m final in 18 years (since Olusoji Fasuba in 2007). He finished sixth in the final, clocking 10.00s.

In the process, the 21-year-old ran the sixth sub-10s race of his budding career in the semi-finals, posting a time of 9.93s. In the heats, he ran a new personal best of 9.88s, which made him the third fastest Nigerian behind Fasuba (9.85s) and Divine Oduduru (9.86s).

Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (Shot Put)

Enekwechi always shows up for Nigeria, and he is usually not too far from the podium at global championships.

After being the only Nigerian at the World Indoors this year, the 32-year-old returned to the World Championships and finished fifth in the men’s shot put final in Tokyo, recording a best throw of 21.52m. It was his third consecutive global final.

Earlier this year, he broke the African record again at the 2025 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in July, with a stunning throw of 22.10m to finish third in the most competitive one-day meet in athletics history. He is the first African ever to surpass the 22-metre barrier in the men’s shot put and now holds seven of the top ten African all-time marks.

Israel Okon (100m)

National champion, Okon didn’t make the final of the men’s 100m final in Tokyo, he had an impressive season.

The 18-year-old, who is Nigeria’s youngest competitor at the championships, impressed in his debut outing by advancing to the men’s 100m semi-final after running 10.04s to win his heat ahead of Britain’s Zharnel Hughes and Olympic champion Lamont Jacobs.

Okon returned for the semi-final in a stacked field that included eventual world champion Oblique Seville of Jamaica, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and South Africa’s Gift Leotlela. He clocked 10.14s to finish sixth in his race, falling short of a spot in the final.

The Auburn University star will hope to refocus and break the 10.00s barrier next season.

Honourable mentions

Other notable names among Nigerian athletes in 2025 include the 10 other athletes who made it to Tokyo, as well as Temitope Adeshina, who won the NCAA high jump indoors title; Tima Godbless, who also broke the 11s barrier; Olaolu Olatunde, Charles Godfred and others with rising profiles in the NCAA.

Source Punch Ng

Posted September 22, 2025