Bada, Fasuba top list of 10 Nigerian medalists at World Indoor Championships

With Chukwuebuka Enekwechi’s fifth place finish at the 20th World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, Nigeria is returning from the Championships for the second straight year without a medal.

This thus mean that only 10 Nigerian athletes have made it to the podium in the history of the Championships.

Courtesy Complete Sports, we bring you the 10 Nigerians that have won medals at the Championships…

Paul Emordi (Long Jump)

After failing twice at the World Athletics Continental Cup in 1985, Emordi returned to the world stage in 1987 to make history as the first Nigerian to win a medal in World Indoor Championships history after leaping to a silver medal finish (8.01m) at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, USA.

Later that year, Emordi, who will be 60 this December, won the NCAA title in the long jump in June and a silver medal at the World University Games in Zagreb, Croatia.

Chidi Imoh (60m)

Still regarded by some as the greatest sprinter Nigeria has ever produced, Imoh made it to the 60m podium, winning the silver medal in Seville, Spain in 1991. This happened six years after he won a silver medal for Africa at the Continental Cup in Canberra, Australia.

He was a member of the Nigeria 4x100m relay team that won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and won his only global title in 1985 when he ran 10.22 to win the 100m event at the World University Games in Kobe, Japan.

Sunday Bada (400m)

The most successful Nigerian in the history of the championships, Bada, now late, won the first of his three medals in 1993 in the 400m. He won the silver medal twice (1993 and 1995) before making history as the first Nigerian to be crowned World indoor champion in 1997 in Paris, France. He ran a then 45.51 African record to make that history.

Davidson Ezinwa (60m)

Unarguably one of the finest sprinters Nigerians have ever seen, Davidson, arguably under achieved in global athletics albeit he was one of only few Nigerians to win medals at the World Athletics Championships indoors and out, as well as the Olympics.

He won Nigeria’s second medal, also a bronze, in the 60m event six years after Imoh made history in the sprint.

Francis Obikwelu (200m)

Obiorah is definitely the most complete sprinter in Nigeria’s history following his prowess in the 100m and 200m events. He sped from his historic double sprint gold at the World u20 Championships in Sydney, Australia in 1996 to win his first senior title at the global level at the World indoors in Paris, running 21.10 to win the 200m bronze.

That same year, he was in Nigeria’s 4x100m relay team that won a silver medal at the World outdoor championships in Athens, Greece.

Two years later he won an individual medal at the World Championships in Seville, Spain where his 19.84 run in the semifinal was the first sub-20 seconds performance by a Nigerian man in the event.

Chioma Ajunwa (Long Jump)

Policewoman Ajunwa almost made history as the first Nigerian and probably the first African woman to hold the title of World indoor champion and Olympic champion at the same time.

Fresh from her historic win at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA, Ajunwa was unable to out leap Italy’s Fiona May, one of her victims barely eight months earlier at the Olympics and had to settle for silver.

Like Ajunwa did in Atlanta, the Italian led from the start with her 6.85m first round leap and improved to 6.86m in the leap while the Nigerian’s fightback was six centimetres short of the winning mark.

Glory Alozie (60m Hurdles)

One of just two Nigerian athletes to win individual medals at the World indoor and outdoor championships, as well as the Olympics, Alozie, like Obikwelu first served notice of a star in the making when she successfully scaled the hurdles to finish second at the World U20 Championships in Sydney, Australia in 1996.

Three years later, the petite sprint hurdler was a household name globally after domination the 100m hurdles scene a year earlier, losing only once all season.

She won the silver medal in Maebashi, Japan in the 60m hurdles, went outdoor to Seville that summer to win another silver before doing the impossible a year later, winning another silver in the 100m hurdles despite losing her fiancé, Hyginus Anugo barely days earlier in Sydney.

Falilat Ogunkoya (400m)

Unarguably the greatest 400m runner Nigeria has ever produced, Ogunkoya’s profile as a world class runner was already rich before she ran to win a silver medal in the event in Maebashi in 1999.

Since 1995 when she ran in her first World Championships final in the event, Ogunkoya has always made it to the final of all global events with her historic double medals and double African records in Atlanta the icing on the cake of her storied career on the track.

Olusoji Fasuba (60m)

Two years after his unsuccessful attempt at speeding to the podium, Fasuba’s wishes became horses in a historic manner in Seville, Spain in 2008 when he dashed across the finish line first to become the first Nigerian nay African man to win the 60m title, a feat the great Frankie Fredericks (silver in 1993) could not do.

Since Fasuba and Uche Isaac ran in that final, no Nigerian man has sped near it and the country missed the chance this year with one athlete breaking 6.50 and four others breaking 6.60 in the 60m event.

Ese Brume (Long Jump)

Brume is the second Nigerian, man or woman to win individual medals at the World indoors, outdoor and the Olympics. The reigning African Games champion and African record holder completed this treble, as it were, in 2022 when she leapt behind Ivana Vuleta to win the silver medal.