Nigeria’s young track stars are lining up for the first World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest from September 11 to 13, chasing a slice of a 10 million dollar prize pot that pays 150,000 dollars to every individual gold medallist.
Two years ago Samuel Ogazi was still a teenager watching the Paris Olympic 400m final from the inside lane. At 20 he is the national record holder, a Commonwealth champion and the fourth fastest man ever over one lap. His 43.38 national record in June and 44.25 gold in Glasgow have put him among the names people watch most closely.
Tobi Amusan remains the squad’s most decorated athlete, the world record holder in the 100m hurdles and the first Nigerian to win World Championships gold. The Budapest team, though, leans hard on athletes barely out of their teens. Kayinsola Ajayi, 21, has matched the Nigerian 100m record three times in 2026, taken two Diamond League wins and beaten reigning world champion Oblique Seville twice.
Ella Onojuvwevwo, also 21, became the first Nigerian woman in more than twenty years to dip under 50 seconds in the 400m, then added an African indoor record and Commonwealth bronze in Glasgow. Nathaniel Ezekiel, ranked fourth in the world in the 400m hurdles, rounds out a group that gives Nigeria its deepest young bench in years. They will share a stadium with Olympic and world champions such as Mondo Duplantis, Noah Lyles and Faith Kipyegon.
The qualification window stays open until September 2. Temitope Adeshina and a relay pool that includes Favour Ashe and Udodi Onwuzurike are still fighting for places. Whoever boards that flight will race at the National Athletics Centre on the Danube, the same venue built for the 2023 World Championships, as Zoyols News tracks how far this new wave can go.
