Amusan tops list of five Nigerian athletes who have secured qualification to World Indoor Championships

Reigning world 100m hurdles champion, Tobiloba Amusan tops the list of five Nigerian athletes WHO have secured qualification to next year’s World Indoor
Championships scheduled to hold in Glasgow, Scotland after the entry standard was unveiled Friday by World Athletics.

Amusan, who did not run in the 2023 indoor circuit, secured her qualification through her outdoor performance. The 12.59 she ran in the 100m hurdles at the
Tom Jones Invitational in Gainesville, Florida about a week ago ininside the 12.80 outdoor entry standard set for the event.

The world 100m hurdles record holder (12.12) who will be 26 on Sunday will now be among the 48 athletes that will compete for podium appearances in the event
in Glasgow.

Also through are sprinters Rosemary Chukwuma and Favour Ofili, who, unlike Amusan secured their qualifications in the NCAA indoor circuit.

Both ran new lifetime best to scale through with Chukwuma speeding to a historic 7.09 seconds in the 60m event to become the seventh Nigerian to break 7.10
in the event while Ofili ran 7.14 to scale through to the Championships.

Two Nigerian men have also booked the ticket to Glasgow. They are Favour Ashe and Ezekiel Nathaniel. Both secured their qualification at the NCAA indoor
circuit.

Ashe’s 6.51 seconds run at the semifinal stage of the 2023 NCAA indoor championships in New Mexico ensured his qualification while Ezekiel Nathaniel made the
most of his first indoor campaign in the 400m to race to what will be his first World Indoor championships.

Nathaniel ran a new lifetime best of 45.69 in the event which is enough to get him through to Glasgow next March.

The qualification window is however still open till February next year and a number of Nigerian athletes are expected to also book their tickets.

Top amongst them will be Ese Brume who won a silver medal at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia to become the second Nigerian after
Glory Alozie to win medals at the World Athletics championships, indoors and outdoor.

Also expected to scale through will be long jumper, Ruth Usoro whose 6.87m mark indoors this year was just two centimtre short of the 6.89m qualification
mark set by World Athletics.

Another athlete who came close to meeting the standard is Udodi Onwuzurike whose 6.59 run in the 60m was just a hundreth of a second short of the 6.58
standard set for the event.

The entry standard for the 60m event for women is 7.19 indoors and 11.05 outdoors while for the 400m an athlete is expected to run 51.60 indoors and 50.50 outdoor.

For the long jump it is 6.89m, 8.02 and 12.80 indoors and outdoor respectively for the 60m hurdles.

For the men, Onwuzurike and the rest of the sprinters will have to run 6.58 indoors or 10.00 outdoor to run in the 60m event and 45.90 and 44.80 indoors and outdoor respectively over the 400m.