Track and Field Nigeria - Hall of Fame
Nigeria has truly made a name in the sports of track and field, and has produced many of the best and famous athletes as well, Below are some of Nigerian's Hall of Fame athletes;
Innocent Egbunike is one of the known names when it comes to the sports of track and field in Nigeria; he was born in the year 1961, on the 30th of November in Onitsha. He was one of the best and fastest sprinters Nigeria had and has won many awards in various continental and international championships.
Some of his achievements include;
After his retirement from sports, he was featured as Nigerian coach and led the Olympic 1996 and 2000 track and field team to the sports events, and also in the year 2008, he was also the head coach for the team in that year’s Olympic Games.
Currently, he is now an Olympic/world class coach, head coach PCC, Sports Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Personal coach and more.
Chidi Imoh was birthed in the year 1963 on the 27th of August, and he was well known as one of the Nigerian best sprinters, before becoming famous, he initially runs for the University of Missouri in Columbia where he made outstanding record of 19.9s on 200m outdoor, finished at 10.00s on 100m outdoor race and at 6.10s on 55m outdoor.
He won for Nigeria a silver medal in the 4 x 100m relay at the 1992 Summer Olympics Barcelona. He became African Champion in the year 1984 and 1985 after winning the 60m bronze medal at the 1991 World Championships. He obtained a gold medal in the 100m race at the 1986 Goodwill Games Moscow and also won the 100m race in the 1987 All-Africa Games.
Mary Onyali-Omagbemi is a past and prominent Nigerian sprinter birthed February 3, 1968, at Delta State, Nigeria. She is married to a Nigerian sprinter Victor Omagbemi. She has won several laurels for Nigeria in Olympic Games and international tournaments.
She won the 1994 Commonwealth Games competing in the 100m race. One of her best records is winning a total of 7 medals in the short sprints at the All-Africa Games. She also won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100m relay at the 1992 Olympic Games and in the 200m at the 1996 Olympic Games.
Omagbemi is now a Special Adviser (Technical) to the director general of the Nigeria National Sports Commission. He is also among the consulting committees that administer Nigeria proposed Sports University.
Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor is a Nigeria professional track and field athlete also known as "the queen of the track". She was born on 9 October 1988 at Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria and married to one of the former Heartland football club player by name Igho Otegheri.
She features mainly in long jumping and short sprints but used to play football as a teenager in high school before picking interest in track and field in the year 2004. She is a multi-talented Nigerian athlete that has competed in many championship tournaments both local and international and has recorded so many awards.
Okagbare has participated at the Nigerian school championships in her early years competing mainly in the long jump, triple jump and high jump winning a medal in each. She competed at the 2007 All-African Games held in Algiers, Algeria winning a silver medal in the Long jump at 6.46m seconds.
She won a silver medal competing in the long jump female category at the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing. Okagbere recorded three gold medals and two bronze at the 2010 African Championships Nairobi Kenya competing in the long jump, 100m and 4 x 100m relay.
In the year 2011, she competed at the All-Africa Games at Maputo, Mozambique and won two gold and silver medals in the 100m, long jump and 4 x 100m relay. In the year 2012, she won a gold and silver medal at the African Championships Porto-Novo, Benin.
She is a bronze medalist at the 2013 World Championships at Moscow competing in the 200m race event. She finished second at the Jamaica International Invitation competing in the women’s 200m category with a lift of 22.66 seconds after Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson in 22.55 seconds.
She is a record holder in the Women’s 100 and 200 meters 2014 Commonwealth games at 10.85 seconds winning a gold medal at each, that same year she won two gold medals again at the African Championships Marrakesh, Morocco.
In the year 2015, she represented Nigeria at the World Relays at Nassau Bahamas where she won a gold medal in the 4 x 200m relay and a gold medal too at the African Games Brazzaville, Congo. In the year 2016, she won a gold medal in the 100m at the Olympics Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil placing 5th in the 200m and 8th in the 4 x 100m relay.
Although she competed at the 2017 World Championships but did not receive an award as she placed 4th in the 100m and 8th in the long jump respectively. She is a bronze medalist at the last held 2018 Commonwealth Games competing in the 4 x 100m relay.
Okagbare has recorded so many laurels since she started the journey of this game both national and international and has been a source of encouragement to Nigerian athletics federation and a source of inspiration to the upcoming athletes.
Chioma Ajunwa is a Nigeria female athlete who specializes in long-jump, she was born on 25 December 1970 in Umuihiokwu, Imo State. She won a bronze medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games competing in the 4 x 100m relay. She won gold medals in the 1989 African Championships and 1991 All African Games competing in the long jump event.
She is the first Nigerian female athlete to win a gold medal in a track and field event at the Olympics Games scaling heights in the women’s long jump event at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta with a jump length of 7.12 meters which was her first attempt in the finals.
She was a silver medalist at the 1997 World Indoor Championships in Paris competing in the women’s long jump event. Her outstanding performance at the Olympics Game brought her fame and national recognition as she was awarded a Member of the Order of Niger (MON) by Sani Abacha who was the Head of State of State of Nigeria that period.
Prior to that; she was conferred a Golden Jubilee Independence Award on 1 October 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan for her contribution to the development of the country.
Oluwatobiloba Amusan is a young Nigerian female track and field sprinter born on 23 April 1997 in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State. She specializes mainly in 100m, 200m, and 100m hurdles and has won many laurels in track and field for Nigeria both in championship tournaments.
She created a record in her high school after finishing the 100m race in about 12.63 seconds at the UEP Springtime Invitational. She competed at the 2013 African Youth Championships in Warri winning a silver medal at the competition.
She is a gold medalist in the 100m hurdles event at the 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships held in Addis Ababa. That same year, she also won a gold medal in the 100m hurdles event at the 2015 All-Africa Games.
In the year 2016, Amusan participated at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz although she did not make it to the top; she placed fifth in the competition. This young talent won a gold and bronze medalist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast Australia competing in the finals of the women’s 100m event and 4 x 100m relay respectively.
Dominique Duncan is a professional Nigerian track and field sprinter born on 7 May 1990 at Houston, Texas U.S.A where she grew up. She specializes mainly in 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m race. The American born athlete competes for Nigeria in international championships and has recorded so many outstanding results.
She competed at the 2009 NCAA Women’s Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships featuring in the 4 x 100m event with a record of 42.36s. At the same competition in 2010, Dominique still went on to claim a gold medal in the 4 x 100m relay event.
She participated in the 2014 African Championships in Athletics where she won gold and a bronze medal at the 200m and 4 x 100m event. Duncan set a national record of 1:30.52 seconds after competing in the 4 X 200M event at the 2015 IAAF World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas.
Gloria kemasuode Ubiebor is a Nigeria female athlete born in Delta state on 30th December 1979. She specializes in track and field event and represents Nigeria internationally.
Her three biggest successes are winning a silver medal at the 2006 African championships at Bambous Mauritius, winning a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, competing at the 4 x 100m race, and also winning a gold medal at the 2008 All African Championships at Addis, Ababa Ethiopia.
Kemasuode was suspended by the IAAF from participating in the competition for two years from 24 July to 23 July 2011 for failing a drug test in Brazil.
Olusoji Fasuba is a Nigeria professional sprinter born in Sapele, Delta state on 9 July 1984. He is the fastest man in Africa and holds a time record of 9.85 seconds.
He was a former student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) before he left schooling to pursue athletics with the support of his mother a Jamaican woman who was a runner during her youth days. He was chosen as the Nigerian Male of the year in 2006 by The Athletics Federation of Nigeria due to his outstanding performance that year.
At the 2007 All-Africa Games, Fasuba won two gold medals competing in the 100m and 4 x 100m relay. He placed fourth in the 100m race at the 2007 World Championships with a time of 10.07 seconds. He won the 2008 World Indoor Championships 60 meters sprint in a time of 6.51 seconds.
Deji Aliu is a Nigeria Male sprinter born on the 22nd of November 1975 in Lagos State. He competes internationally for Nigeria and has won laurels too.
He represented Nigeria at the 2002 Commonwealth Games placing fourth in the competition. He is a gold medalist at the 2003 All-African Games competing in the 100 meters event.
Deji was part of the Nigerian relay team that won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.
Davidson Ezinwa is a prominent sprinter that formerly competes for Nigeria at championship tournament. He was born on 22 November 1971.
He won silver at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland in the 100m event. He won a silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and also at the 1997 World Indoor Championships competing both in 4 x 100 meters relay. He is a Gold medalist at the 1995 All-Africa Games.
Davidson recorded three medals at the World Junior Championships for three subsequent years which involve a gold, silver and bronze medal in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay. He is ranked the second fastest runner in Nigeria and the third in Africa with a time of 9.91 seconds.
Adewale Olukoju is a renowned Nigeria athlete who specializes mainly in the discus throw and shot put. He was born July 27, 1968. This Nigerian athlete is well known and celebrated for his successful victories in the early 1990s. He won a total of four metal medals at the All-Africa Games.
He is married to the great female Nigerian sprinter Fatima Yusuf. He recorded the best time in discus throw is 67.80 meters which he scored in May 1991.
In the same year, he won a gold medal at the World Student Games in the discus throw event. In the year 1992 and 1988, he was a gold medalist in the African Championships.
Otonye Iworima is a professional Nigerian triple jumper who has won many laurels for her home country. She was chosen as the Nigerian Female of the year in 2006 for her performance to the Commonwealth Games and African Championships.
She competed for Nigeria at the 2007 All-Africa Games in the triple jump winning a bronze medal.
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