Deji Aliu

Deji Aliu ranks as Nigeria’s fifth fastest man of all time in both the 100m and 200m! Aliu produced a superb run at the 2003 All-Africa Games in Abuja where he raced to the men’s 100m title in a blazing time of 9.95s. He also clocked an impressive Personal Best (PB) time of 20.25s in Athens in 2002, tying for the fifth spot with Davidson Ezinwa on the all-time list.

Aliu started running from a very young age and has been passionate about the sport from the word go. He began to represent his school right from primary school days and was discovered in secondary school. He was subsequently selected to represent Lagos state at the All Nigeria Secondary School Games back in the day.

Aliu specialized in the 60m, 100m and 200m during his active days as a sprinter and won several medals for the country at Junior and Senior levels, emerging World Junior Champion in the 100m in 1994, and Silver medallist in the 200m at the same competition. He remains Nigeria’s National Record (NR) holder in the 60m with a time of 6.48s.

The All-African Games Champion competed at three Olympic Games (Atlanta ’96, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004). At his final outing at the Olympics, Aliu anchored the Nigerian team comprising of Uchenna Emedolu, Aaron Egbele and Olusoji Fasuba to win a Bronze medal in the men’s 4x100m relay.

Deji Aliu is a firm believer in the potential of Nigerian athletes and is confident that the country can once again produce sub-10 runners who can become world beaters if harnessed properly. So rather than wait for the government or any form of corporate sponsorship, Aliu took matters into his own hands and set up Akhigbe Track Club in 2014 in a bid to raise world beaters.

He joined forces with Making of Champions (MoC) in 2015 to raise Nigeria’s next crop of champions, when he teamed up with fellow Olympians Francis Obikwelu, Glory Alozie and Emedolu at the Top Sprinter Auditions in Ibadan, Enugu, Benin and Lagos Finals. He is MoC’s Head Coach in Lagos where he is training several of our Athletes for the future!