Nigerian athletes missing as World Indoor Champs begins
Nigerian athletes were conspicuously missing from the start lists and event summaries on Friday as the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championship got underway in Nanjing, China, NewsNGR Sports Extra reports.
NewsNGR Sports Extra reported that the country’s participation was dealt a blow by visa issues which depleted the country’s 10-man contingent.
As of day one of the event on Friday, they were yet to overcome the issues as the names of Nigerian athletes billed to compete on Friday and Saturday (today) were missing from the championship’s schedule.
New African record holder in 400m indoor, Ezekiel Nathaniel was not listed in the five heats of the men’s 400m with the final set to be completed today.
Also, Nigeria’s only entrant in the women’s 60m, Success Umukoro was not listed in the start list of the six heats for the event which holds today.
The World Athletics had published names of 10 Nigerian athletes for the meet earlier this week with the contingent expected to compete in six events; the women’s 60m, women’s high jump, women’s long jump, men’s 400m, men’s shot put and men’s 4x400m relay.
The 10 listed athletes include shot put thrower Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, new African 400m indoor record holder Nathaniel, Chidi Okezie, Temitope Adeshina and Paris Olympics finalist Prestina Ochonogor.
Others are Ediddiong Udo, James Onwuka, Ifeanyi Ojeli, Umukoro and Joshua Caleb.
Before the depletion hit team Nigeria, our correspondent also gathered that the AFN made frantic efforts to get the athletes to China after it initially considered not honouring the competition due to the busy schedule of most Nigerian athletes in the NCAA.
As it stands, Nigerians will watch until the last day of the championship on Sunday, to see if Chukwuebuka Eneckwechi, who is said to be in China will compete in the men’s shot put as well as the men’s 4x400m relay quartet.
Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu grabbed gold in a dramatic 60m final to bring the first day of action at the World Athletics Indoor Championships to a thrilling close.
Eloy Benitez of Puerto Rico fell to the track mid-race, while USA’s Ronnie Baker pulled up just before the finish and Azu stormed through to take the title in 6.49 to equal his PB.
Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy secured silver in 6.50 and South Africa’s Akani Simbine got bronze – his first global individual medal after a series of fourth- and fifth-place finishes in major international finals
