By our reporter 11.3.2026
At the recently concluded 2nd Niger Delta Games 17 athletes achieved the qualifying standards of the World Athletics U-20 Championships billed for the USA later in the year.
This was revealed in the technical report submitted to the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the National Sports Commission by the technical director of the Niger Delta Games, Olympian Enefiok Udo-Obong.
Four boys and 13 girls achieved the qualifying standards at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City main venue of the Niger Delta Games.
Notably among them is the 100 meters which has a qualifying time of 10.50 seconds with two sprinters making the mark.
Chibueze Osama and Godswill Sunday, both of Delta State ran faster times of 10.42 and 10.44 seconds respectively.
While the standard qualifying time for the 200 meters is 21.25 seconds, Bright Gift from Akwa Ibom returned a faster time of 21.25 seconds.
Oseiwe Salami Ahusimenre of Edo State returned a time of 51.75 seconds to meet the 55 seconds benchmark for the men’s 400 meters hurdles.
Four girls made the qualifying time of 11.78 seconds in the women 100 meter sprints. They are Ejiro Peter of Delta State (11.58 seconds), Edo State’s Tejiri Ugoh PRAISE (11.76), Azeez Zainab of Ondo State (11.73) and Victory Imoisemen Azobudi of Edo(11.78).
In the girls 200 meters, Ejiro Peter(23.66), Tejiri Ugoh PRAISE (23.75) and Delta State’s Faith Chukwuma (24.02) all made it faster that the world standards 24.35 seconds.
There was also a high return of qualifiers in the girls 400 meters category with five athletes beating the world standard 55.20 seconds.
Those who breasted the tape below the time are Delta State Okereke Treasure (52.50), Jacinter Andrew of Akwa Ibom (53.83), Siviana Ossai of Delta (53.85), Odot Udo of Akwa Ibom (54.49), Iyanuoluwa Aderemi of Ondo (54.95) and Faith Ezechukwu of Bayelsa (55.19)
Mary Innocent of Delta State ran a time of 59.87 seconds to beat the world standard’s 1:00.75 seconds for the girls 400 meters hurdles.
The last qualifier was in the long jump where Favour Olise of Delta State leapt to a height of 6.33 meters, well over the world benchmark of 6.22 meters
According to Udo-Obong, who is Technical Advisor to the Royal Saudi Arabia Athletics, the Niger Delta Games has provided Nigeria athletics a pool of athletes to enter for the World Junior U-20 Championship.
“The Niger Delta Games is an event in the calendar of World Athletics, and this means that performances at the Games are official and rates as a qualifying platform for the global meet.
“It is now left to the authorities in Nigeria to decide if the country will be participating, and if yes, there is no reason these athletes can’t be entered”, the Sydney Olympics 400 meters relay gold medalist stated.
Athletes competing at the Niger Delta Games.