With hours before the official start of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Team Nigeria is ready to take on the rest of the Commonwealth countries in the battle for sports supremacy.
Fresh from smashing the world record at the 2022 World Athletics Championship, Tobi Amusan will be aiming to successfully defend the gold medal she won in the 2018 edition of the Games. Also, World Athletics Championship Silver medalist, Ese Brume will be the cynosure of all eyes in the long jump event in which she is won Bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In Wrestling, Blessing Oborodudu won gold at the last Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia in the Women’s -68kg category.
Also, Odunayo Adekuoroye will defend her gold medal in the Women’s wrestling -57kg category, just as Aminat Adeniyi who won gold in the -62kg event.
The Table Tennis contingent led by Aruna Quadri, which includes Olajide Omotayo would be aiming to improve on the Silver medals they earned from Gold Coast.
Nigeria’s athletes competing in the Powerlifting event will also be aiming to beat all-comers, and better the four Gold medals the country picked up in Gold Coast via Roland Ezuruike, Esther Onyema, Ndidi Nwosu and Abdulazeez Ibrahim.
Nigeria’s para athletes, amongst the best in the world would for sure provide stern tests to their challengers from other nations. Yetunde Odunuga and Millicent Agboegbulam would be set to improve on their bronze medals achievements in Boxing from 2018.
In total, Team Nigeria won 9 Gold medals, 9 silver medals and 6 bronze medals from 8 sports in 2018.
This time, Nigeria will compete in 9 sports namely: Athletics, Boxing, Table Tennis, Judo, weightlifting, Wrestling, Para Athletics, Para powerlifting, Para Table Tennis.
Tobi will certainly be the cynosure of all eyes when the athletics event of the games starts. The petite, 25 year old made history at the 18th World Athletics Championships concluded Sunday in Oregon, USA where she scorched to a 12.12 seconds world record enroute her historic gold medal win.
She is now the first, and so fa only Nigerian track and field star to set a world outdoor record and the first to be crowned a world champion. This came barely 10 months after she made history as the first Nigerian athlete to win a Diamond League trophy following her incredible, 12.42 seconds African record-setting run at the Diamond League final in Zurich, Switzerland last September.
In Birmingham, Tobi will be the overwhelming favourite to successfully defend the Commonwealth Games title she won four years ago in the Gold Coast, Australia. The Nigerian will not only be targetting a successful defence of her title but also smash the 12.65 seconds games record set by Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster-Hylton in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.
Amusan came close four years ago, running 12.68 seconds to win the title
