Four ‘Nigerians’ seeking Diamond League glory in Brussels

This weekend in Brussels, Belgium, four athletes with Nigerian origin, either wholly or partially, will be in action seeking to be crowned King and Queens of the 2024 Wanda Diamond League, athletics’ premier one day series.

One is a bona-fide Nigerian, while the three others represent other countries.

The athletes are Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Yemisi Ogunleye, Salwa Eid Nasser, and Rhasidat Adeleke.

Enekwechi, like the three others, could have chosen to represent the USA, his country of birth and abode, but he chose Nigeria and has harvested a lot of continental glories.

He will be making his first appearance in the Diamond League final, but the odds are heavily stacked against his making history as Nigeria’s first field eventer to win a Diamond League trophy.

Eid Nasser was named Ebelechukwu Agbapuonwu by her parents in Anambra state, a state she represented as a youth in competitions in Nigeria before she was recruited by Bahrain athletics officials and has since carved indelible niches for herself, her adopted country and even Nigeria!.

Eid Nasser was a Diamond League 400m champion in 2018, incidentally in Brussels, and a year later, she became the first Bahrain and by extension Nigerian athlete to win the full lap gold at World Athletics’ flagship event, the World Athletics Championships.

She went under the cooler for whereabouts failure and has now returned to continue where she left off in 2019.

The 26-year-old won the silver medal at the Olympics and will fancy her chances of winning her second Diamond League title Friday evening in Brussels.

Adeleke was born to Nigerian parents in Ireland, the country she has chosen to represent.

The tall and dark 22-year-old was expected to ruffle some feathers at the Olympics in Paris, but only managed to place fourth.

She has another chance to fulfil her huge potential and make a huge statement ahead of next year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

If she wins, she will become the first Irish athlete to win in the event.

Also seeking to become the first German winner of the Shot Put event in Diamond League history is Yemisi Ogunleye who was born to a Nigerian father and German mother.

Ogunleye made history at the Paris Olympics as the first German woman in 28 years to be crowned champions at the greatest multi-sports fiesta in the world.