The trio of Nigerian athletes Favour Ofili, Kanyinsola Ajayi, and Tima Godbless have qualified for the 2025 World Athletics Championships scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan, this August.
At the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida, Ofili finished in second place in the women’s 200m race, clocking a time of 22.34 seconds. She was just behind reigning Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred, who won with an impressive time of 21.88 seconds, according to BusinessDay.
The performance marks a strong start to Ofili’s 2025 season and secures her spot for the upcoming Tokyo Games.
The sprinter from Louisiana State University concluded the last season with a personal best of 22.05 seconds, improving on her previous indoor record of 22.11 seconds set in 2023. In 2022, Ofili made history as the first Nigerian woman to run under 22 seconds, achieving a personal record of 21.96 seconds. She reached the semifinals of the 200m at the 2024 Paris Olympics and is now looking forward to competing on another global stage in Tokyo.
In Gainesville, emerging sprint star Kanyinsola Ajayi achieved a personal best of 9.96 seconds in the men’s 100m, making him the 11th Nigerian man to break the 10-second barrier. He is also the first to qualify for the World Championships in the 100m event.
Ajayi’s form has been exceptional. Last month, he equalled Deji Aliu’s 1999 national record of 6.48 seconds in the 60m. Remarkably, while it took Aliu four years to break the 10-second barrier, Ajayi achieved it in just over a month.
In the women’s 200m invitational, 20-year-old Tima Godbless qualified with a personal best of 22.55 seconds, below the standard of 22.57 seconds, despite a -0.3 m/s headwind. The next day, she ran an impressive 11.14 seconds in the 100m with a -2.4 m/s headwind. With these performances, she joins Ofili as Nigeria’s second female qualifier in the 200m for the Tokyo Olympics.
With these performances, Nigerian athletics is showing a resurgence on the global stage, and expectations are high ahead of what promises to be a thrilling 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
