Team Nigeria is currently in the second position behind runaway leaders, Egypt, but the country is being trailed by Algeria and South Africa, who are third and fourth respectively on the medals table.
Nigeria is banking on athletics events to shore up its gold haul, which determines where every country finishes.
The athletics event will begin on Monday and Team Nigeria will be looking up to United States-based reigning African Games 100m hurdles champion, Tobi Amusan, and Long jump queen, Ese Brume, to win their respective events to increase the nation’s hope of maintaining the second position on the medals table.
As things stand now, Egypt, with over 50 gold medals, has secured the top spot on the medals table going by the rate the Pharaohs are winning events at competition venues in Ghana.
Nigeria has topped the track and field medals table in 11 of the 12 editions of the African Games held so far, with the 1995 Games in Harare, Zimbabwe the best in terms of the
number of gold medals won (15), while the athletics contingent hauled a record 38 medals four years earlier in Cairo, Egypt with 13 gold, 16 silver and nine bronze medals.
From Monday, all eyes will be on Amusan, who is seeking a hat-trick of 100m hurdles gold as well as to improve on the 12.68 seconds Games’ record she set in 2019 at Rabat, Morocco.
She made her debut in 2015 and extended Nigeria’s 100 percent record in the event. She successfully defended her title in 2019 and is heavily favoured tobecome the second Nigerian woman to win three straight titles in the same event after shot putter, Vivian Chukwuemeka.
Brume won her first African Games’ gold in the long jump in Rabat, Morocco 2019 after placing fourth in her debut in 2015.
Now, the soft-spoken Brume is seeking to become the second Nigerian woman and second athlete after Modupe Oshikoya (1973 and 1978) to successfully defend along jump title in African Games history.
Another U.S.-based star to watch out for in Ghana is long jumper, Ruth Usoro, who will compete in the long and triple jumps. While she will have her compatriot, Brume to contend with in the long jump, it is in the triple that she could have her way as she is favoured to become the third Nigerian after Rosa Collins (1995) and Grace Anigbata (2019) to win the event’s gold medal.
Usoro will also be aiming to become the second athlete to win a long jump and triple jump double after Cameroon’s Joëlle Mbumi Nkouindjin, who won both in 2015.
Discus throw champion, Chioma Onyekwere, is back to defend the title she first won in 2019. He will be keen to become the third African woman to successfully defend an African Games crown in the event after Monia Kari of Tunisia (1995 and 1999) and South Africa’s Elizna Naude (2003 and 2007).
It could be an all Nigerian affair in the event for the first time ever as the duo of Ashley Anumba and Pamela Obiageri will join Onyekwere in battling for the three medals on offer in Ghana.
Sade Olatoye is also on the list and will compete in both the Shot Put and Hammer throw. She will be bidding to defend the Shot Put crown she won in 2019 and probably become the first Nigerian to successfully complete a Shot Put and Hammer throw double in the history of the games.
For the men, all eyes will be on new sprint sensation, Ekanem Consider, as he will be attempting to win a medal his coach, Seun Ogunkoya, was not destined to win an African Games gold despite two African Championship triumphs during his career.
With the confirmed absence of reigning African and Commonwealth Games champion, Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya, Consider will fancy his chances of succeeding RaymondEkevwo and in the process, become the sixth Nigerian to win the African Games 100m gold.
In the men’s 400m event, the trio of Dubem Nwachukwu, Chidi Okezie and Nathaniel Ezekiel will be looking to put Nigeria on the map again 37 years after Innocent Egbunike became the first and only Nigerian man to win gold in the event.
Ezekiel and his brother, Samson Nathaniel, will also be seeking to return Nigeria to reckoning in the event 21 years after Osita Okeagu won the country’s first and only gold medal in the 400m hurdles.
In the shot-put, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi will not only be looking to become the fourth man to successfully defend an African Games title, but will also be keen to improve the 21.48m Games record he set four years ago on his way to striking gold.
