Julius Okorie
Despite their poor outing, dubbed the mother of all flops, at the just concluded 33rd Olympics in Paris, Nigerian athletes have moved up in the World Athletics ranking, especially in their individual disciplines.
Faour Ofili who finished sixth in the women’s 200m, despite facing huge challenges for no fault of hers, advanced to the eighth position in the 200m rankings, making her the leading athlete in Africa. She is currently ranked 138th in the overall women’s World rankings.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelSamuel Ogazi, who reached the final in the men’s 400m event, climbed to the third position in Africa and 12th in the world 400m ranking, a huge leap from his previous 23rd position.
Kanyinsola Ajayi, who reached the semi-finals of the men’s 100m, moved two places up to 23rd in the events ranking and seventh in Africa.
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In the men’s shot put, two-time African champion, Enekwechi, climbed to seventh position in the world after his performance in the Olympics. In the overrall rankings, pole vaulter, Mondo Duplantis, holds the highest position among male athletes, followed by Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and new Olympic 100m champion, Noah Lyles.
Kenya dominated in the long distance race women’s category, with Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon, leading the rankings in the 5,000m and 10000m categories respectively, while the Netherlands sprinter Femke Bol holds the third position.
Despite the improvement in ranking achieved by Nigerian athletes in their individual sporting disciplines and on the African continent, there is no doubt that a lot needs to be down, as only world record holder, Tobi Amusan, who retained her record, despite failing to qualify for 100m hurdles final, is ranked in the world top 100.
She is currently ranked 82nd in the world. No Nigerian is ranking in the top 100 in the men’s world ranking.
Top 10 in the men’s world ranking are Armand Duplantis, Jakob Ingerbrigtesen, Noah Lyles,Ri Benjamin, Karsten Warholm and Alison Dos Santos. Others are Ryan Crouser, Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Joe Kovas.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
