Athletics
LAGOS SPORTS BOSS, KWEKU TANDOH APPLAUDS NATIONAL YOUTH GAMES
The Chairman of the Lagos State Sports Commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, has applauded the Grassroots and Youth Development department of the Sports Ministry, headed by Dr. Ademola Are, for the excellent organization of the 5th National Youth Games in Ilorin, Kwara State.
Dr. Tandoh, said in Ilorin, that, the Youth Games is the only solution to speedy disappearance of world class athletes from Team Nigeria.
He said: “This year’s National Youth Games is well organized compared to what it was in the last three editions. The most striking improvements are the facilities, the screening exercise was also near perfect. What these tell us is that, the organizers of the Youth Games have listening ears on further development of the Games.”
He added: “The other improvement was on the performances of Team Lagos at the 2019 Games. For us, it has been nothing but excellent, considering the fact that, we presented Under-15 athletes as stipulated by the rules of the Games’ organizers.
“Last year was our first participation in the National Youth Games and we finished second place despite not taking part in all the sports. At the end of the Games, we went back and decided to re-strategize and some of those strategies have worked for us, as we strongly gave consideration to some of the sports we have comparative advantage.
“We are beginning to see the results, so far, the Team Lagos has done very well, with the even spread of medals covering various sports, and it gives us good advantage. We believe so much that at the end of the Games we would have put up our best performance so far in the history of the National Youth Games.”
He stressed that: “We take delight in the overwhelming improvement and top performance of Team Lagos in the swimming event. This was a sport that we won only silver and a bronze at the last edition of the festival. This year, we won five gold medals, nine silver and two bronze medals in swimming.
“In this year’s Youth Games, out of the two hundred and forty eight athletes presented by Team Lagos for the Games, only two were screened out by the facial analysis screening methodology approach by the NYG screening team.
This improvement was made possible by a carefully selected training and developmental regime put in place by the Lagos Sports Commission, with the support of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who himself is a passionate follower of sports.
“It was also a one hundred percent performance in the football event, where Team Lagos won all the available gold medals in the event, in the male and female categories.”
Tandoh noted that: “Aside from all the medals so far won by Team Lagos athletes, the performances of the athletes have been wonderful in all the sports. We expect that such heartwarming performances will continue.”
The Lagos Sports Commission chairman stated that, for Lagos State our focus as a commission is sports development, in form of school sports and Community base development. Infact, the national Youth Games for us is more important that the National Sports Festival, because we believe this is where we begin to produce those talents that we will present to represent the state and indeed Nigeria.
“We take it very seriously, in each of the sports we have restrategized after the last National Youth Games. We constituted the boards of the state sports associations December last year and they are all in place.
“I must say that, I am very happy with what many of the boards have done since they resumed activities. We are beginning to see the production of new athletes. I must say that, out of the athletes representing Team Lagos at Ilorin 2019, only about 30 percent are returnee athletes from the last Games. That production line has started and that is what gives us great joy.
“And of course, we could not have done these without the support of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who gave us everything that we required to prepare for this Games. We are looking long term.
“We believe in Lagos that sports development should be the focus of all states Sports Commissions. Let us begin to bring up all these talents from the youth and that is why I strongly support the decision of the Director of Grassroots, Youth Development in the Sports Ministry, Dr. Ademola Are, who reduced age-grade of participants in the Youth Games from 17 years to 15 years.
“When it come to youth development, the younger the better. With Under 17, the focus was always on winning competitions and not developmental. The Under 15 category for the National Youth Games is good because what that tells you, is that, you have to start preparing your athletes from age 10 and that is the best time to prepare them, and that will provide the opportunity in four to five years time for these youngsters to reach their target marks.
“For us in Lagos, the Youth Games is actually the test of the work the Sports Commissions and the Sports Agencies across the country are doing.”
Tandoh also appealed to sports administrators from all the states of the federation to stop using over-aged athletes for age-grade events.
“We want to appeal to some of the Sports Agencies from across the country, that it is not a do or die thing. We have seen some athletes at Ilorin 2019 that are far above the regulated 15 years old. I am a medical Doctor I have a bit of insights into knowing athletes that are overaged.
“By using over-aged athletes, the administrators, will forced to falsify athletes ages. It’s not a do or die thing, if your athletes are 15 years or more, then you begin to prepare such athletes for National Championships of the sports or the National Sports Festival.
“Let the Under 15s only compete at the SYG, lets know those who are the true Under-15s because that is what Nigeria will benefit from. We don’t want over-aged atheletes at 19 years old or 20 years, to come here to win nine gold medals and after one year he or she is nowhere to be found.
“That doesn’t augur well for sports development. So I want to appeal to all of us administrators to stick to what the rules say. For example in Lagos, before this edition of the National Youth Games, we had our own screening and took out athletes that we felt were overaged, or looked over aged.”
BY DANLADI BAKO
Sports and indeed global athletics have been the cynosure of quite a huge community of track and field afficionados in the last nine days at the Tokyo World Athletics finals.
The global athletics fraternity congregates annually to celebrate new world beaters and champions.
Athletes spend a large amount of time, energy and resources to train, attracting the best coaches and utilizing some of the high impact facilities in developing qualifying times for their individual events.
So many nations facilitate the upscaling and upgrading of their athletes’ mentality, physique and performance standing through investments in the training and welfare of their high-profile athletes by providing grants, scholarships and appreciable reward systems.
These have been in short supply in Nigeria and indeed within the developing world where the priorities of most governments are education, health, poverty and so many other development challenges.
However, the benefits of investing in sports are unquantifiable especially on the world global diplomatic stage, unassailable visibility and an incredible reputation unachievable in so many other areas of human existence. In the eighties and 90s the Americans literally ruled the sprints with female 100 meters legend Florence Griffiths – Joyner and 400 meters world champion Michael Johnson.
Just like America used the movies to show Americans as the world best, sportsmen like basketball’s Michael Jordan and boxing’s Muhammad Ali put America on the pinnacle of human capacity for endurance, determination, strategic planning and near perfect execution.
America might have the size and population above 200 million so it’s success can be expected, however Jamaica an island of 150 miles by 50 miles has gone beyond exporting Reggae’s global icons like Bob Marley and Alton Ellis to producing 100 meters legends Usain Bolt, Sherry Ann Fraser-Price and Marlene Ottey thereby winning international recognition and inevitable public reckoning far beyond most African countries.
Now a land locked southern African sub-continent country Botswana with less than the population of Lagos State just on Sunday won the 4 x 400 men’s relay gold at the Tokyo 2025 games even after picking a few other medals through individual athletes Tebogo et al.
The Tokyo games have come and gone with Tobi Amusan putting Nigeria on the medals table with her 100 meters Silver medal. Ajayi’s efforts in the 100 meters men’s final was also commendable.
For me the highest point was the super- human diminutive Kenyan Faith Kipyegon in the 1500 metres clinching gold and 5000 metres silver.
Another great spectacle was the exploits of American idol Noah Lyle who anchored the last leg of the 4 x100 metres gold winning quartet.
Lyle won the 200 metres gold as well becoming one of the audaciuos and eye-catching supreme athletes of Tokyo 2025. Mention must be made of Sweden’s Armand Mondo who broke the pole vault world record thrice in two days.
So when and how would Nigeria get to these towering heights of conquering the world?
The fact is that we once had Olympic and World Athletics finalists like Innocent Egbunike (400m) , Chidi Imo (100 and 200m), Yusuf Alli (Long jump) and Falilat Ogunkoya (400m) although it was the American University collegiate structure that groomed them to become world beaters with little or no input from the home government.
Once in a long while a training grant of $50,000 gets handed to them in preparation for Olympic games to pay their coaches and for utilizing training facilities abroad. Even Ezekiel Nathaniel and Oyinkansola Ajayi are still beneficiaries of the American University collegiate structure.
The aforementioned names who also schooled and trained in the United States are still very much around especially Yusuf Alli, Falilat and Mary Onyali.
The authorities need to device the appropriate strategies to achieve podium standings in the nearest immediate future.
All the products of the National Youth Games and the School Sports Federation games should be drafted into a growth enhancement program, hire some of the best Athletics coaches from around the world and ensure the construction and maintenance of high-performance pitches and gymnasia.
The Sports Federations must be populated with patriotic and passionate sports men who are brimming with enthusiasm, desire and creativity.
President Tinubu did not only resuscitate the National Sports Commission, he gave an unprecedented 12 billion naira to the Sports Ministry for AFCON and other tournaments earlier this year so we have a listening President who can restore our lost glory in sports and athletics in particular. Nigeria must reclaim its podium standing capability as soon as possible.
Danladi Bako, OON was Senior Special Assistant to former Minister of Youth and Sports as well as one-time Chairman Sokoto State Football Association.
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By KUNLE SOLAJA.
Nigeria’s silver medal finish at the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships once again highlighted the country’s roller-coaster fortunes on the global stage.
While the podium placement ensured Nigeria did not return empty-handed, the overall medal count has remained stagnant in recent years compared to other rising athletics nations.
At the Doha 2019 Championships, Team Nigeria endured a barren outing, failing to register a single medal. Three years later in Oregon 2022, Ese Brume broke the drought with a stunning gold in the women’s long jump — Nigeria’s first-ever world title in the event.
The momentum continued into Budapest 2023, where world record holder Tobi Amusan claimed silver in the women’s 100m hurdles, cementing Nigeria’s presence among the elite hurdlers. In Tokyo this year, the nation repeated the feat in the same event, albeit again settling for silver.
A comparative glance at the last four editions shows a troubling trend: Nigeria has not improved its medal tally, with just one medal each in 2022, 2023, and 2025.
This raises urgent questions about depth, consistency, and investment in talent development beyond the few star performers.
Comparative Medal Table (2019–2025)
- Doha 2019 – 0 medals (No standout performance)
- Oregon 2022 – 1 Gold (Ese Brume, Women’s Long Jump)
- Budapest 2023 – 1 Silver (Tobi Amusan, 100m Hurdles)
- Tokyo 2025 – 1 Silver (100m Hurdles)
The pattern underscores Nigeria’s reliance on individual brilliance rather than systemic excellence. Athletics analysts argue that unless the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) strengthens grassroots programs, invests in coaching and sports science, and improves athlete welfare, the country risks stagnating while competitors from Africa and beyond surge ahead.
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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Nigeria wrapped up its campaign at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo with a single silver medal, finishing joint 25th on the overall medals table with eight others on the medals tables as the curtain was drawing on the championship.
The position may even deepen at the end of the day.
Star hurdler Tobi Amusan delivered the country’s only podium finish, placing second in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Despite the modest medal haul, several Nigerian athletes impressed with near-misses and record-breaking efforts.
Ezekiel Nathaniel narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s 400m hurdles, finishing fourthin a national record time. Kanyinsola Ajayi also reached the men’s 100m final, settling for sixth, while shot put specialist Chukwuebuka Enekwechi placed fifthin his event.
Nigeria fielded 15 athletes – eight men and seven women – in Tokyo. While the performances reflected resilience, the lack of medals beyond Amusan’s silver highlighted gaps in preparation and depth.
Analysts point to the absence of Nigeria’s traditionally strong relay teams, logistical challenges, and inadequate athlete support as major setbacks.
Sports observers insist that the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) must chart a new path if the country is to climb the global athletics ladder.
Key recommendations include better logistics and athlete welfare, renewed focus on relay programmes, grassroots talent identification, and consistent funding.
Despite the below-par medal count, the performances in Tokyo suggest Nigeria still possesses world-class potential. With reforms and stronger administration, the AFN has an opportunity to turn near-misses into podium finishes at future championships.
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