Nigeria’s 40-Year Wait for World U20 Women’s 100m Title Begins in Oregon
Nigeria’s quest to reclaim the women’s 100m title at the World Athletics U20 Championships will rest on the shoulders of Chigozie Rosemary Nwankwo and Lucy Chiamaka Nwankwo after the country’s fastest junior sprinter of 2026, Miracle Oluebube Ezechukwu, was not entered for the event.
Ezechukwu, who reached the semi-finals of the 100m at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, is expected to miss the opening round in Eugene as she continues to battle visa issues.
The talented sprinter was scheduled to travel to the United States on Tuesday but is now expected to arrive only after the first round, ruling her out of Nigeria’s challenge in the blue-riband event.
Her absence leaves Chigozie and Lucy Nwankwo with the responsibility of carrying Nigeria’s hopes as the country attempts to produce its first women’s 100m champion at the World U20 Championships in four decades.
Chigozie Rosemary Nwankwo has been drawn in Heat Three, where she faces a stern test against American Mariah Maxwell, who boasts a season’s best of 11.11 seconds.
The Nigerian, with a personal and season’s best of 11.34 seconds, will also line up against Poland’s Oliwia Kasprzak, Slovakia’s Ema Bendová and New Zealand’s Kendra Scally-Tu’i in a race where the first three finishers and the next three fastest times across all eight heats will progress to the semi-finals.
Lucy Chiamaka Nwankwo, meanwhile, will compete in Heat Five alongside Great Britain’s Lily Bradley and Switzerland’s Xenia Buri, two of the leading contenders in her race.
Lucy enters the championships with a season’s best of 11.40 seconds and will be aiming to secure one of the automatic qualification places or advance as one of the fastest losers.
The women’s 100m remains one of Nigeria’s most celebrated events at the World U20 Championships. Tina Iheagwam etched her name into history in 1986 when she became the first Nigerian to win the women’s 100m title, a feat no other Nigerian woman has replicated in the 40 years since.
