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As the 2023 season gets deeper, more Nigerian athletes are securing their qualification tickets to the World Championships in Budapest. Here's a compilation of those that have qualified so far.
The World Athletics Championships is the world's biggest track and field championship, where the best athletes converge to compete for the honour of the world title or medals on the biggest stage of all.
This year's championship will hold in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, from August 19 - 27, and several athletes have already started securing tickets to the prestigious meet.
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Qualification is via several means during a given window period.
They are becoming the world champion in the previous edition of the championship, an athlete hitting or surpassing the qualification standard of an event set by the World Athletics council, winning the continental title in an event, and consideration of position ranking on the world's top list for events that don't have enough athletes competing.
Currently, some Nigerian athletes have done this in their individual events via the first two means and are sure of donning the country's colours in Budapest, barring unforeseen circumstances.
The jumps
Ese Brume is the African Record (AR) holder in the women's long jump and qualified at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she won the Commonwealth title with a distance of 7.00m.
Brume has consistently qualified and won a medal since 2019, placing her in the top three of the world's best long jumpers.
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Meanwhile, Ruth Usoro exceeded the long jump qualifying standard of 6.85m by winning the event with a Personal Best (PB) distance of 6.87m at the Texas Tech Corky Classic last month.
Her mark also propelled her to joint second on Africa's all-time list, alongside Blessing Okagbare and behind the AR of 6.97m.
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The long and triple jumper will participate in her second consecutive edition after making her debut in Oregon last year. There she became the first Nigerian athlete (male or female) to compete in both the long and triple jump events at the championship.
The Hurdles
Tobi Amusan qualified in Oregon through her historic 100m Hurdles world title-winning performance.
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Amusan became the first Nigerian athlete to be crowned a world outdoor champion, and a World Record (WR) holder, after clocking a jaw-dropping time of 12.12s in the semifinals.
The reigning champion will be gunning to have a successful title defence in Budapest.
The Sprints
Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha hit the 100m qualifying standard of 11.05s at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, after both clocked 11.02s and 10.99s in the semifinals of their races.
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While Favour Ofili secured her spot in the 200m with a time of 22.51s, which won her the silver medal at the Games. The time surpassed the automatic standard of 22.75s.
The throws
Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Sade Olatoye, and Chioma Onyekwere are currently guaranteed to don Nigeria's colours in the Shot Put, Hammer Throw, and Discus Throw events respectively.
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They qualified by winning the African title in their various events at the African Championships in Mauritius last year.
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However, they can only have a guaranteed ticket if they remain on top of the African performance list before the deadline day of the qualification period or if they surpass the automatic qualifying standard in their events.
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