1999 was the year Nigeria’s legendary sprint hurdler Glory Alozie cemented her place on the world stage, and it was at the World Athletics Championships staged in the city of Seville that she made her breakthrough.
She had earlier shown great promise at the World Junior Championships three years prior in Sydney. Her hunger for success from that point kept increasing as she posted remarkable performances at continental and global events.
Fast forward to her first World outdoor Championships outing, she stunned doubters, equaling her 12.44s African Record set about a year ago, to pick the Silver medal in the 100m hurdles behind USA’s Gail Devers (12.37s).
Previously in March at the Maebashi World Indoors, she also won Silver in the women’s 60m hurdles, becoming the first Nigerian athlete to win medals in the same year at the World indoor and outdoor championships.
Worthy of note is that the 1999 World Championships was one to remember on a national level as it saw Nigeria win two medals at the same competition for the first time in history, with Francis Obikwelu getting a Bronze in the men’s 200m after running 20.11s in the final.
Other records were also matched as Mercy Nku became the second Nigerian to qualify for the women’s 100m final. Quarter miler Falilat Ogunkoya made her third consecutive final appearance in the women’s 400m final but missed out narrowly on a podium finish, placing 4th with 50.03s.
As the countdown to the 40th anniversary of the World Athletics Championships, along with the 2023 edition, set to hold in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19th to 27th, begins, we will highlight Nigeria’s medals won at the World Championships, which first started out as a quadrennial event, but became a biennial one after the third edition held in Tokyo in 1991. Nigeria has won a total of 11 medals: two of them in the relays and nine from individual events!
