MTN CHAMPS proudly announces a list of seven Nigerian Athletics stars to spearhead Season 2 of the MTN Athletics Championships which was first launched in 2023 across four cities.
This group of seven record-breaking stars include three track Ambassadors, including a lead Ambassador, and four field Ambassadors – three of them in the Throws and one in the Jumps, with six of them set to represent the country and win laurels at the Accra 2023 African Games .
Returning as MTN CHAMPS Lead Ambassador for Season 2 is Udodi Onwuzirike – the 2023 NCAA 200m Champion, 5th fastest 20-year-old of all time in 200m – (19.76s) and 2021 World U-20 Champion over 200m!
He will be joined by two other sprinters, Enoch Adegoke (100m) and Emmanuel Ojeli (400m) who are also returning Ambassadors from Season 1.
Leading the Throws Ambassadors is Nigerian and African Champion Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (Shot Put), who will be joined by Chioma Onyekwere (Discus Throw) and Oyesade Olatoye (Hammer Throw). Rounding out the list as the Jumps Ambassador is Ruth Usoro (Long Jump, Triple Jump).
OYESADE OLATOYE
Nigeria’s current Hammer throw champion, Sade Olatoye, made history in 2022 by becoming Nigeria’s first ever woman to win GOLD in the Hammer throw at the African Athletics Championships.
Olatoye, a multi-event athlete with incredible skills in both Hammer and Shot Put throw, won the NCAA title in 2019 in the weight throw, and even got nominated for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
She claimed her first National title in the Shot Put at the 2021 National Championships, after she opted to represent Nigeria. Olatoye then went on to make her debut at the 2022 African Senior Athletics Championships in Mauritius, securing GOLD for Nigeria in the Women’s Hammer throw.
In 2023 at the Oklahoma Throws Series, she became only the second African woman to surpass 70 metres in the Hammer Throw, hurling a Personal Best (PB) of 70.86m.
RUTH USORO
Talented Long and Triple Jumper Ruth Usoro set a then-World Lead mark of 6.87 meters this year, a feat that has earned her automatic qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Her first professional win came at the 2023 Meeting Citta’ Di Padova in Italy, where she landed an impressive 6.75m.
Usoro in the NCAA was an immovable force. She won the NCAA Triple Jump titles indoors and out and jumped 6.82m in the Long Jump, hitting the qualifying standard for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This was the second best jump in the world for the season at the time and the third best on the Nigerian all-time list.
Her Personal Best of 14.50m in the Triple Jump is the Nigerian National Record and qualified her for Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Her exploits that season, made her the first Nigerian woman ever to qualify in the Long Jump and Triple Jump at the same Olympics!
CHIOMA ONYEKWERE
Chioma Onyekwere is Africa’s best female Discus thrower. In 2022, she became the first Nigerian woman in history to win a Commonwealth Gold medal in the event, after throwing a mark of 61.70m.
She made her international debut for Nigeria in 2016 at the African Championships, where she won a Bronze medal. In 2018, she represented Team Africa at the IAAF Continental Cup, where she placed fourth in the Discus (56.68m). Later that year, she won GOLD at the 2018 African Championships in Asaba.
At the 2019 All-African Games, Onyekwere won another GOLD (59.91m), thereby cementing her name as the best female Discus thrower in Africa, and earning her a qualifying spot at the 2019 World Athletics Championship in Doha. She successfully defended her title at the 2022 African Championships in Mauritius.
In 2023, Onyekwere attained a huge career feat at the Oklahoma Throws Series when she threw a massive new Personal Best (PB) of 64.96m to win the women’s Discus Throw. Her mark shattered the 16-year-old African Record of 64.87m set by South Africa’s Eliza Naude.
EMMANUEL OJELI
2019 National 400m Champion Ojeli was the first Olympian ever to emerge from MoC Track Club, when he represented Nigeria in Mixed 4x400m at the Tokyo Olympics, and set a PB of 45.63s in 2023!
Discovered at MoC’s 2016 Top Sprinter Champs as 400m Youth Champion, he also claimed the 2017 National Youth Games 400m Title before joining MoC in Lagos that year.
Ojeli’s breakthrough season came in 2019 when he set a PB of 45.91s at the Gaborone Grand Prix in Botswana, before going on to claim his first senior National 400m Title and 4x400m Bronze at the African Games in Rabat!
In 2021, he helped Nigeria’s mixed 4x400m set a new African Record (AR) of 3:13.60 at the Tokyo Olympics, also winning Silver in the event and Bronze in men’s 4x400m at the 2022 African Champs in Mauritius. He recently set a new 400m PB of 45.63s to finish 2023 as Nigeria’s 2nd fastest quarter-miler this year!
ENOCH ADEGOKE
Adegoke is Oyo State’s fastest ever Athlete! In 2021, he became the first Nigerian man in 25 years to reach the 100m Olympic Final and is also a Commonwealth Games 100m finalist!
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, he won both his 100m heat and semi-final to progress to his first Senior International final for Nigeria, also competing in the 4x100m Relays.
He ran a Personal Best (PB) of 9.98s in his 100m heat at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, becoming the eleventh Nigerian in history to break the 10 second barrier, and then finished 2nd in his semi-final in 10.00s to reach the Olympic 100m final!
He was Nigeria’s Fastest Man in 2021 when he won the 100m at Nigeria’s Olympic Trials, also winning at the National Sports Festival!
CHUKWUEBUKA ENEKWECHI
Chukwuebuka Enekwechi is a 12-time NCAA All-American with five medals on the American collegiate circuit. The 2016 Purdue graduate who won four Big Ten Championships and owns four school records, has represented Nigeria at four World Championships!
He is the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Game Silver medallist and reigning African Champion in the shot put. He also won GOLD at the 2019 African Games and holds the title of Nigerian National Sports Festival Champion.
In 2019, Enekwechi recorded a PB and National Record of 21.80 meters to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. He also won the event at the All-African Games in Rabat, Morocco, with a throw of 21.48m, and finished eighth at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, with a shot put mark of 21.19m.
Enekwechi has solidified his stance as the biggest male Shot Putter to ever come out of Africa, starting 2024 in amazing form by breaking the indoor African Record in the event with a brilliant 21.63m. He would go on to place 6th in the final of the event at the World Indoor Championships, his highest placing at a global championship.
UDODI ONWUZURIKE
Onwuzurike burst onto the global scene at 18, winning the 200m at the 2021 World U20 Championships in Nairobi, his first global event after the US-born athlete opted to represent Nigeria. Now also NCAA 200m Champion, he is on track to become one of the world’s greatest ever 200m athletes!
Few words can articulate the incredible potential that he possesses in both the 100m & 200m – he ran an incredible 200m PB of 19.76s en route to winning the 2023 NCAA 200m Title, placing him 2nd on Nigeria’s all-time list and making him the 5th fastest 20-year-old ever globally in the 200m!
In 2023, he also became Nigeria’s 13th man to run sub-10s in the 100m with a 9.92s PB, placing him 5th on the Nigerian all-time list, after a promising 2022 season where he anchored Team Nigeria to 4x100m Bronze at the Commonwealth Games after representing Nigeria at the World Championships in the 100m and 200m.
Equally gifted academically, the Stanford undergraduate’s career is set to explode – there is no better example to the next generation that embodies both athletic and academic excellence at the highest level globally. MTN CHAMPS is proud to once again, present Udodi Onwuzirike as our Lead Ambassador for MTN Champs Season 2!
