IAAF World Indoor Championships: Nine athletes to represent Nigeria

Nine athletes are expected to represent Nigeria at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Indoor Championships billed to hold from March 1 to 4 in Birmingham, according to the provisional entry list already released by the IAAF.

The nine athletes comprise seven females and two males.

Topping the list of female athletes is Oluwatobiloba Amusan who will be competing in in the 60m Hurdles where she set a Personal Best (PB) and Season (SB) of 7.89s earlier this season.

She is ranked 8th in the world now and will be joined in the event by 2015 African Games 100m Hurdles Bronze medalist – Lindsay Lindley, who only raced to a PB/SB of 8.04s last week.

While Amusan has also been listed to wear Nigeria’s colours at the Commonwealth Games, Linsday is not in the 37-man list recently released by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria.

In the 400m event for Women, three-time Nigerian Champion, Patience Okon-George, will be the country’s sole representative in that event.

With her SB time of 51.40s which is ranked No.1 in the world (outdoor) in 2018, Okon should be able to push at least to the finals of the one-lap event.

She will be joined by her compatriots Regina George, Glory Nathaniel, Yinka Ajayi and Emerald Egwim in the 4x400m Women’s relay event.

The trio of Ajayi, Nathaniel and Egwim made their World (outdoor) Championships debut in London last year, and will be hoping to make an impact at their first outing at the World Indoors.

For the men, U.S.-based Chukwuebuka Enekwechi will compete in the men’s shot put event while another U.S.-based athlete Chidi Okezie, will be trying out in the men’s 400m.

A total of US$2,464,000 is on offer from the IAAF as prize money at the 17th IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018.

There is also a US$50,000 bonus on offer for any athlete who sets a World Record during the four-day championship in Birmingham, UK.