Amusan, Ofili, Onojuvwevwo top list of 10 Nigerian women track and field stars to watch in 2025

The 2025 athletics season is up and running and Nigerians, starved of at least a global medal in the last two years after enjoying a first ever World outdoor title in 2022, will be expectant of having a better season.

The women have always bailed Nigeria out of a medal less return since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where the women’s 4x100m relay team and Blessing Okagbare ensured podium appearances.

Regrettably, Nigeria’s fate are still in the hands of our female track and field stars as the country aims to win her first medal in what will be her third trip to Japan this September to participate in the World outdoor Championships.

Here are 10 of Nigeria’s top female athletes to watch in 2025..

Tobi Amusan: Reigning Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles champion and world record holder, Amusan penned a cryptic message on the eve of 2025, telling Nigerians and the whole world of what is to come in 2025.

Albeit she did not exactly say what she was hinting at but it aroused curiosity.

With the fact that she is now training with Glen Mills, the Jamaican who coached Usain Bolt to multiple World and Olympic titles and World records, the 27 year old will certainly be one to watchout for in a very competitive event like the high hurdles.

The Nigerian failed to make it to the final of the event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and with the emergence of the likes of Ackera Nugent (12.24 last year) and Olympic champion, Masai Russell (12.25 also last year) as well as Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, it will be interesting to see how Amusan will battle to reclaim the number one status she enjoyed in 2022 and carried on to 2023 before the setback she suffered which affected her World title defense.

Ese Brume: For the second year in a row, Brume, the African long jump record holder failed to jump to the podium at a global event, after making the podium in the three preceding years (bronze in 2019 and silver in 2022 Worlds) and silver at the Olympics in 2021 and World indoors, also in 2022.

Like she did in 2023 when she made it to the final of the World Championships in Budapest but could not leap onto the podium, Brume repeated the same performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

In 2025, the 28 year old will be keen to end that unwanted run and leap into reckoning again, especially at the World outdoor Championships this September in Tokyo, Japan to extend her record as the only Nigerian to win an individual medal in the same event in three editions of the flagship event of World Athletics!.

Favour Ofili: Ofili was cruelly denied the chance to compete in the 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics by officials of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, who, by sheer negligent and poor judgement subjected the Nigeria 200m indoor and outdoor record holder to a trauma she managed to partially overcome to make it to her first final at the Games.

Ofili ran wind-aided 10.78 and 10.85 times in the 100m prior to the Games with very marginal tail winds, leaving Nigerians and the track and field world to imagine what would have been at the Games.

The 22 year old now has the chance to shame the AFN officials who shamelessly removed her name from the Paris 2024 Olympics 100m event. She will also be one of the Nigerians to watchout for at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan as she will be gunning for her first, global individual medal.

Rosemary Chukwuma: When Chukwuma stormed to a 10.88 lifetime best in the 100m last May to become the second fastest Nigerian woman ever in the event after Blessing Okagbare (10.79), Nigerians have been expectant.

She failed to fulfil those expectations last year, especially at the Paris 2024 Olympics where she managed to make it to the semifinals.

Chukwuma, now out of school, will be keen to prove her 10.88 performance was not by happenstance and what better platform to do that than the World Athletics in Tokyo, Japan.

Prestina Ochonogor: At only 18, Prestina leapt into her first Olympics final in her first attempt albeit she did not leap as far as the 6.79m she achieved earlier that year in Calabar, the capital of Cross Rivers state in Southsouth Nigeria.

Coached by Kayode Yaya, the man who has guided Ese Brume to four global medals and an African record, Prestina will be looking to prove she is not a one-season wonder and will like to leap beyond making the final of the Long Jump event at the 20th World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan this September.

Ella Onojuvwevwo: Ella made history as the eighth Nigerian woman to run inside 51 seconds in the 400m in 2024. Touted as the new Falilat Ogunkoya, the 19 year old did not just run a sub-51 seconds over the full lap race once but as many as six times, showing the consistency that proves she has really come of age.

Ella, as she is fondly called, will be seeking to become the fourth Nigerian woman after Ogunkoya, Charity Opara and Fatimah Yusuf to run a sub-50 seconds over the distance.
A place in the final of the 400m event at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan should also be in her plan for the new year.

Tima Godbless: Tima, the reigning National Sports Festival double sprint champion came close to becoming the eighth Nigerian to break 11 seconds in the 100m. The 20 year old came close to doing that last year when she ran 11.03 seconds.

This year, Tima will be hoping to do just that and also become the fifth Nigerian woman to make it to the final of the blue ribband event at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan after Mary Onyali, Mercy Nku, Damola Osayomi and Blessing Okagbare.

Nigerians will be eagerly waiting to see Tima run as fast and far to make that history.

Esther Elo Joseph: From a 53.3 runner in 2023, Elo Joseph, as she is fondly called, sped to national consciousness in February 2024 when she ran 52.00 in the 400m at the African Games Trials in Asaba, Delta state.

The 21 year old proved she was not a one race wonder as she broke 52 seconds the following month at the African Games, opening with 51.81..and she did not look back thereafter.

She ran inside 52 seconds thrice, including a 51.61 lifetime best that fetched her an African Games silver medal. By the end of the year, she has ducked inside 52 seconds six times!.

Her incredible performances ensured she ended 2024 as the top ranked Nigerian woman in the 400m.

Can she race to the next level in 2025 by becoming the ninth Nigerian to run a sub-51 seconds in the event?. Nigerians are waiting.. and watching.

Temitope Adeshina: Temitope set a new 1.97m national record in the high jump event last year. In fact, the 26 year old started the race soaring higher than any Nigerian woman ever in the event to clear 1.96m in the event.

She improved on it by adding a centimeter to clear 1.97m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon in June. Further attempts to becoming the first Nigerian to hit the magical 2m mark never came to fruition. All eyes will be on the Nigerian to soar as high as 2m in the event in 2025.

Oyesade Olatoye: Sade hit her first 70m mark (71.88m) in the Hammer throw last year to become only the second Nigerian after Annette Echikunwoke to do so. Echikunwoke has since changed allegiance to her country of birth but still has her name as the Nigerian nay African record holder in the event.

The task before Sade is to hit farther than Eckikunwoke’s 75.49m to become the new, bonafide Nigerian nay African record holder in the event. Can Sade do it? That will be the question on every Nigerian’s lip in 2025.

Culled from Complete Sports