Seven Nigerian Track and Field athletes have already qualified for the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics scehduled to hold in the summer of 2021. Here are Parts 1 and 2 of our stories on the seven athletes set to don the green and white in Tokyo.
Nevertheless, there are several others who are hoping to book their spots to the quadrennial event on or before the June 29th deadline for qualification to the Tokyo Games. Here is Part 1 of our list of athletes that are on the verge of qualifying for the Olympics.
10. Joy Udo-Gabriel
Event:100m
Personal Best (PB): 11.42s
Season’s Best (SB): 11.72s
Olympic Standard: 11.15s
Highest ever World Ranking: 70
Current World Ranking: 73
From being the fastest schoolgirl in Lagos to becoming the Nigerian women’s 100m Champion, Joy Udo-Gabriel has come a long way in the sport. The 2018 season proved to be the defining point in her career as she rose to the top of the women’s 100m in Nigeria.
At the Commonwealth Trials, she placed 3rd in the women’s 100m final and secured a spot to run at the Games in Gold Coast, Australia, where she made her international debut. She clocked a PB of 11.42s for 2nd place behind Gayon Evans in her heat and narrowly missed out on a spot in the final, after running 11.53s for 9th place overall.
However, she led off the women’s 4x100m quartet, completed by Blessing Okagbare, Tobi Amusan and Rosemary Chukwuma to strike Bronze behind the English and Jamaican teams at the Games, thus taking home her very first international medal.
In her next outing for the country at the African Championships in Asaba, and regardless of the pressure of running in front of a home crowd, she clinched her first individual senior medal for Nigeria as she placed 3rd in the 100m with a time of 11.58s behind then World Leader, Marie Josee Ta Lou (11.15) and Janet Amponsah (11.54).
She finished 2nd at the MoC Grand Prix in 11.48s, followed up with winning the women’s 100m at the National U-20 Trials and the West African University Games, before closing the season with a 3rd place finish in the women’s 100m at the National Sports Festival (NSF).
She opened up her 2019 campaign in April, running at the International Meet in Gaborone where she won the 200m and clocked a time of 11.56s for 2nd place in the 100m. She replicated that time and position at the African Games Trials in Abuja and then moved on to competing in Europe where she won all of her 100m races and the sole 200m she competed in.
Back in Nigeria in time for the National Athletics Championships, Udo-Gabriel after winning her heat and semifinal, powered to the National 100m title in 11.58s. She then finished 4th in the women’s 100m final at the African Games in Rabat and got GOLD with the Nigerian quartet in the 4x100m. She ended her season at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, running in the heats of the women’s 4x100m.
Udo-Gabriel commenced her 2021 campaign at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All-Comers Meet in Akure and was the woman to beat in the 100m, clocking a Season’s Best (SB) of 11.76s to take the title. She is aiming to better her times as the season progresses so as to run in the individual 100m in Tokyo.
9. Rilwan Alowonle
Event: 400m Hurdles
Personal Best (PB): 49.42s
Season’s Best (SB):
Olympic Standard: 48.90s
Highest ever World Ranking: 60
Current World Ranking: –
Since Rilwan Alowonle rounded up his collegiate career for North Carolina in 2017, he has transformed nicely into the country’s best male hurdler as he made his first appearance for Nigeria at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where he broke 50 seconds for the first time, clocking a Personal Best (PB) of 49.49s to make the final of the men’s 400m Hurdles.
He went on to finish 5th in the final, dipped under 50s one more time at the Baie Mahault Meet in Guadeloupe and then won his next couple of meets in Montverde and Grootebroek to bring a close to the season.
Alowonle who is based in the US, opened up 2019 with a win, running 50.36s at the Pepsi Florida Relays in Gainesville.
Acting as a buildup to the African Games, he ran in a handful of meets, including the Drake Relays and the Motonet GP and subsequently improved his Season’s Best (SB) to 50.01s.
At the African Games in Rabat, he made the final of event by finishing 3rd in his heat and then stormed to a new PB of 49.42s, just outside the Bronze medal position in the final.
He then made his World Championships debut in Doha, bowing out in the semifinals of his event and will now work towards lowering his PB for a slot on the Olympic team.
8. Grace Nwokocha
Event: 100m
Personal Best (PB): 11.45s/11.38s (NWI)
Season’s Best (SB):
Olympic Standard: 11.15s
Highest ever World Ranking: 316
Current World Ranking: 316
In two years since Grace Nwokocha started running competitive races, she has emerged as a full prospect in the women’s 100m, dropping her times every season.
In her first National competition at the Ozoro U-20 Trials, she made the 100m final and finished 6th, and then raced to 2nd place in the 200m in 24.41s. She competed in a few meets after then, notably winning a Bronze in the women’s 100m final at the West African University Games behind Joy Udo-Gabriel and Balikis Yakubu.
Nwokocha kicked off 2019 by winning the 100m at the National U-20 Championships in Ilaro in a time of 11.79s and thereafter won Bronze in the 100m at the African U-20 Championships in Abidjan.
She brought an end to that eventful season at the National Championships where she won her heat and semifinal races, running a PB of 11.60s in the latter before winning Silver in the final behind Joy Udo-Gabriel and was infact a reserve on the women’s 4x100m team to the African Games in Rabat.
Returning to the track in 2020, Nwokocha was dominant in the few races she competed in as she opened up her season with a quick 11.38s run, the fastest time run by a Nigerian on home soil since 2018. The time would have passed for a new PB, except that there was no wind reading in the race.
A temporary stop was put to her season due to the COVID-19 pandemic but she ran in the women’s 100m at the Okowa COVID-19 Resumption Meet in Asaba where she dropped her PB to 11.45s, with a legal 0.7m/s wind reading, going on to win the final in 11.64s ahead of Udo-Gabriel.
For 2021, Nwokocha, who debuted on the World Athletics rankings, will set her sights on making the Olympic team to Tokyo by further improving her PB or moving up the rankings.
7. Enoch Adegoke
Event:100m
Personal Best (PB): 10.12s
Season’s Best (SB): 10.16s
Olympic Standard: 10.05s
Highest ever World Ranking: 64
Current World Ranking: 74
Enoch Adegoke’s first major mark as a sprinter was in 2017 at the AFN/Dynamic Sporting Solutions Meet in Abuja when he ran a time of 10.40s over the 100m!
He quickly established himself as one of Nigeria’s fastest men in 2018, as after taking 2nd place in his heat and semifinal races at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Trials, he defeated a field of vastly experienced sprinters to win the men’s 100m in a Personal Best (PB) of 10.31s, securing a berth on the team to Gold Coast.
An inspired Adegoke was the country’s sprints revelation in Gold Coast as he comfortably beat England’s Harry Aikines-Aryeteey to take the win in his heat of the men’s 100m, finishing in a big PB of 10.19s.
He then upstaged South Africa’s Henricho Bruintjies to take his semifinal in 10.24s. He made the final in his first ever international competition, running 10.35s, which was his 4th fastest time ever at the time, and finished in 7th place, running against some of the very best sprinters in the world.
He went on to represent Nigeria in the 100m and 4x100m at the African Senior Championships in Asaba and won his first medal for the country – Silver in the men’s 4x100m.
His next stop was at the West African University Games in Port Harcourt where he won the men’s 100m in 10.21s, just missing his best by two-hundredths of a second and he finished his season with a 3rd place finish in the men’s 100m at the National Sports Festival (NSF) in Abuja.
Adegoke won the National U-20 100m title in 2019, followed by GOLD at the African U-20 Championships. In his next competition at the 2nd MoC Grand Prix, he ran 10.21s to qualify for the men’s 100m final and then stormed to the win in the final with a new lifetime best of 10.12s.
He reached a brilliant level of consistency in 2019, further winning the 100m at the Cameroun Grand Prix in 10.15s and finishing 2nd in the men’s 100m at the Nigerian Athletics Championships.
In his first outing in 2021, Adegoke demonstrated his level of preparedness for the season by racing to a World Lead (WL) and Season’s Best (SB) of 10.16s to win the men’s 100m final at the AFN All-Comers in Akure. His PB is just 0.07s off the Olympic qualification mark in the men’s 100m, and he will be hoping to bridge that gap very soon.
6. Emmanuel Ojeli
Event: 400m
Personal Best (PB): 45.91s
Season’s Best (SB):
Olympic Standard: 44.90s
Highest ever World Ranking: 66
Current World Ranking: –
After a string of 47 second clockings and in his second season of arriving on the national scene, Emmanuel Ojeli finally dipped under the barrier at the 19th National Sports Festival in Abuja where he finished 2nd in his semifinal in a time of 46.98s.
He went on to win his first national medal, a Bronze, in the final of that race in 47.03s and has since burgeoned into the nation’s finest runner in the quartermile.
In 2019, Ojeli got his campaign off at the International Meet in Gaborone where with an inspired run, he came through strongly with a late surge from the 8th lane to take the win in the men’s B Final in a lifetime best of 45.91, chopping over a second off his previous best.
He came down in distance to the 100m and 200m at his next competition at the ACNW Meet in South Africa where he dropped very impressive Personal Bests (PB) of 10.41s and 21.07s respectively to win both events.
On returning to Nigeria, he was undefeated in the 400m as he went ahead to win the MoC Grand Prix and followed with another win at the African Games Trials in Abuja, posting 46.16s.
He entered his first Nigerian Athletics Championships as the favourite for the title and rose to the occassion as he stormed to the win with his trademark finish in a time of 45.93s – the 2nd fastest time of his career.
In 2020, he finished 2nd in the men’s 400m at the Kip Keino Classic, a World Athletics Challenge meet in Kenya, with a Season’s Best (SB) of 46.49s.
He opened his 2021 season with a bang, setting new PBs of 10.40s and 20.78s respectively in the 100m and 200m, giving a glimpse of things to come this year. With the hope of attending more meets in the course of the season, Ojeli is set to make a return to the world rankings and hopefully, secure a berth to the Olympics.
