The 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, ended on Sunday with Team Nigeria returning home without a medal after the country’s contingent failed to make it to the podium.
The team’s medals hopes were pinned on the shoulders of long jumper, Ese Brume and sprint hurdler, Tobi Amusan.
Brume brought Nigeria back to the podium in 2019 with a bronze medal after two editions without medals (2015 and 2017) and she helped in getting Nigeria twice to the podium three years later in Oregon, USA where she upgraded her bronze medal win in 2019 to silver.
Amusan joined the party in Oregon after placing fourth in 2019 but her appearance at the World Athletics Championships podium was historic.
She first made history as the first Nigerian to set a world outdoor record when she ran 12.12 seconds in the semifinals of the 100m hurdles event in Oregon.
The then 25-year-old followed up with a first-ever gold medal by a Nigerian at World Athletics’ flagship event
However, following the inability of the duo to get to the podium, the team, led by Tonobok Okowa, president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, turned prayer warriors, seeking a miracle for the relay teams.
But the Nigerian men and women’s 4x100m teams failed to make it to the final with the women’s team even dropping the baton.
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All hopes were now placed on the women’s 4x400m team to make it to Sunday’s final where winning a medal would be the focus.
Two of the athletes who qualified the team for the Championships were turned to ‘used and dumped’ because the AFN failed to include them in the registered pool of athletes to be tested for three out-of-competition tests which was a pre-condition for any Nigerian athlete to fulfil before they can compete in any major international competitions and Games.
Overall, Team Nigeria had only two athletes in the final which makes this edition one of the worst in terms of performance.
Team Nigeria started on the wrong foot when the mixed relay team, finalist at the last edition, failed to make it to the final, placing seventh (3:14.38) in the second semifinal.
Then followed Shot Putter, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who, for the first time in three editions, failed to make it to the final, finishing 13th in the final classification.
The women’s Discus throw trio of Chioma Onyekwere, Ashley Anumba and Obiageri Pamela Amaechi failed to extend their historic participation (first time Nigeria is having three throwers in the same event) to at least a spot at the podium.
Onyekwere, the Commonwealth Games champion finished 21st (58.58m), Anumba, the 2022 National Sports Festival queen 25th (57.77m) and Amaechi (51.60m) finished 37th, the last spot in the overall classification.
In the 400m, Imaobong Nse Uko and Dubem Nwachkwu failed to race beyond the first round in the women and men’s races while Ezekiel Nathaniel’s bid to become the second Nigerian after Henry Amike (1987) to make the final of the 400m hurdles ended at the semifinal stage.
While the duo of Ushoritse Itshekiri and Seye Ogunlewe failed to make it to the final in the 100m, Favour Ashe was disqualified in the first round for a false start.
In the women’s version, Rosemary Chukwuma failed to advance to the final, exiting at the semifinal stage.
Alaba Akintola and Favour Ofili did not advance beyond the semifinal while only the duo of Brume and Amusan made it to the final.
Nigeria first failed to make the podium in 1991 in Tokyo, Japan and repeated the same feat two years later in Stuttgart, Germany.
Sunday Bada, now late, anchored Nigeria’s 4x400m relay team to a bronze medal finish in 1995 in Gothenburg, Sweden and Davidson Ezinwa followed suit two years later in Athens, Greece where he led the 4x100m team to an African record and a silver medal.
The duo of Glory Alozie and Francis Obikwelu returned Team Nigeria to individual podium finishes in Seville, Spain in 1999, 12 years after Innocent Egbunike won Nigeria’s second individual medal at the Championships (after Ajayi Agbebaku won a triple jump bronze in 1983).
Like the AFN has always done, it failed to build on the success of 2013 and ended the next two editions without a podium finish.
Brume turned the saviour in 2019 to return Nigeria to the podium before she combined with Amusan for podium finishes in Oregon.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
