Ogazi tops list of 7 Nigerian male track and field stars to watch in 2025

Samuel Ogazi: The whole world and not just Nigerians will be waiting to see how Ogazi will grow to become a candidate for one of the event’s medals at the 20th World Athletics Championships later this September in Tokyo, Japan after the 18-year-old, like a bolt out of the blues, sped to international reckoning in 2024.

Ogazi started year 2024 as an emerging star after successfully completing a 200/400m double at the African U18 Championships in Ndola, Zambia in 2023 but ended the year as one of the most talked about athletes, especially in the full lap race.

He not only became the second fastest Nigerian ever over the 400m, he also became the second Nigerian to run inside 45 seconds at least six times in a season (bettered only by Innocent Egbunike’s 12 in 1987).

Ogazi also made it to the Olympics final in the 400m on his first attempt and became the third Nigerian to race in the final of the full lap race at the Games after Egbunike and Sunday Uti (1984) and the first since Egbunike last did in 1988.

The whole world will be watching to see if the University of Alabama student-athlete could be the first Nigerian athlete to run a sub-44 seconds in the event, a feat that can make him a contender for one of the medals that will be on offer at the Worlds in Tokyo.

Kanyinsola Ajayi: Ajayi’s story is similar to Ogazi’s in a few ways except that he started 2024 as a 10.27 runner and just one of the many Nigerian sprinters who is working hard to carve indelible niches for themselves.

In less than three months into the year, Ajayi had already shown glimpses of what is to come after running 6.60 seconds over the 60 metres indoors in the NCAA circuit.

The 20 year old proved his indoor performances were not by happenstances as he began the outdoor campaign with a big bang and finished the Collegiate season with a bronze medal (10.01)hanging on his neck in the 100m event and ran just two hundredths of a second off a sub-10 seconds performance.

He won the Nigerian Championships’ 100m title for the first time in his career and made it to his first Olympics.

On the eve of his first appearance at the greatest multisport fiesta in the world, he came even closer to running inside 10 seconds after he sped to a 10.00 finish at a meeting in Lucern, Switzerland.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Ajayi ran all the way to the semifinals and came close to breaking 10 seconds over the distance with a 10.02 clocking.

Nigerians will thus be waiting to see if he would join the exclusive club of sub-10 seconds runners in 2025 and run all the way to the final of the event at the Worlds in Tokyo, Japan in September.

Nathaniel Ezekiel: Ezekiel made history in 2022 when he broke a long standing 400m hurdles record set by Henry Amike in 1987. He did not stop there.

In 2024, the 21-year-old ran the race of his life over the 400m hurdles but watched as the clock stopped at 48.00 seconds at the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium in Waco, Texas, thereby denying the honour of becoming the first Nigerian to run a sub-48 seconds in the event.

In 2025, expectations are high that Ezekiel would make that history happen to graduate to the class of athletes that can challenge for global honours in the event.

Chukwuebuka Enekwechi: Paris 2024 Olympics finalist, Enekwechi has been consistently dominating the African Shot Put scene for quite some time now but needs to step up to challenge for global medals. To do this, he must make that history as the first Nigerian man to hit the 22m mark. He came close to achieving that last year when he threw 21.91m at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon in May.

The task before him now is to make that history and stay fairly consistent in an event he is ranked among the best 10 in the world but whose chances of a podium appearance look very slim. Nigerians will be hoping he makes that transition and transform into a global medal contender with the Worlds in Tokyo, Japan in September his first opportunity to deliver that historic medal.

Godson Oghenebrume: Godson has the arduous task of proving he is not just an NCAA wonder but one that takes his incredible runs in the Collegiate circuit to the World stage. There is no doubt that the 21-year-old has been one of the standout performers in the NCAA circuit in the last two seasons.

He ran 9.90 to come second in the NCAA outdoor championships in 2023 and in 2024, he was just a step out of the medal zone after running 10.02 to place fourth. He also broke 10 seconds for the second season in a row.

After missing the 2023 Worlds a year after his misadventure to Oregon for the 18th edition of the Worlds, the Louisiana State University, LSU, student-athlete now has the chance to prove he can perform at the world stage post NCAA season when the 20th edition of the Worlds holds in September in Tokyo, Japan.

Favour Ashe: Like Oghenebrume, Ashe also needs to prove he is a big occasion player and that he is not just an NCAA wonder. For three seasons in a row, the 22-year-old has raced inside 10 seconds, all in the NCAA circuit and has even made it the NCAA podium.

In Tokyo this September, he will get the opportunity to transform from a Collegiate wonder to a world superstar. Can he do it? Only Ashe can answer that question but what is not in doubt is his huge talent, if well harnessed, can take him to the podium at the global level.

Charles Edward Godfred: When Ineh Emmeanuel ORITSEMEYIWA leapt to a distance of 8.16m in May 2021, Nigerians thought the good old days on Nigeria dominating in the long jump in the African continent and the Commonwealth stage were coming back. Oritsemetiwa disappeared from the radar of 8m jumpers thereafter.

That hope was rekindled in 2024 when Godfred, the African U18 champion in 2023 jumped o a new 8.16m lifetime best in June 2024 to win the Nigerian Championships title.

The big question on the lips of Nigerian track and field watchers is: Is he the one that will start that renaissance and take Nigeria back to the top, to begin a new era of dominance similar or better than when the Yusuf Alis, George Ogbeides, Paul Emordis, Obinna Eregbus and Charlton Ehizuelens.
Culled from Complete Sports digital version