Commonwealth Games National Trials end in Lagos

True to his pre-championship boast, Favour Ashe stormed to a new personal best of 9.93 seconds (+0.5) to win the men’s 100m title, as Nigeria’s Commonwealth Games trials ended in Lagos, yesterday.
  
Ashe, who was one of the foreign-based athletes sponsored to the national trials by the Delta State government, became the fastest Nigerian man ever to win the national championships and the fastest ever on home soil.

The blistering run by Ashe, who flew in from Qatar on Friday, capped a historic race in which Nicholas Fakorede finished second in 9.98 seconds, also a personal best.

Together, Ashe and Fakorede became the first Nigerians to break the 10-second mark in the same race at the national championships, and the first since 2003 when Deji Aliu and Uchenna Emedolu achieved the feat at the African Games in Abuja.

Ashe has now dipped under 10 seconds on both occasions he has won the Nigerian 100m title, having clocked 9.99 seconds to win his first crown in 2022 at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City.

At yesterday’s event, watched by an appreciable crowd at YABATECH Sports Centre, Ashe ran 9.98 seconds in the semifinals and reduced it to 9.93seconds in the final.
  
Chidera Ezeakor also impressed in the race, finishing third in a personal best of 10.03 seconds.
  
Fakorede, who finished second in 9.98 seconds, told The Guardian that the race by Ashe actually pushed him to achieve his New Personal Best time.
  
In the women’s 400m, veteran quartermiler Patience Okon-George, 34, once again proved her enduring class, powering to victory in 51.87 seconds to claim the national title for the fifth time and her first since 2021. Kudoro Taiwo, 2024 winner, finished in second position.
   
The men’s 400m final saw U.S.-based Johnson Tyler, who recently switched allegiance from the United States to Nigeria in March, storm to victory in 45.75 seconds. Achakpoekir Victory secured silver in 45.91 seconds, while Emmanuel Ojeli, winner in 2019, completed the podium with 45.94 seconds. 
  
U.S.-based Chidi Okezie was fourth in 46.25 seconds.
  
In the women’s Shot Put event, Divine Oladipo continued her dominance, claiming her second consecutive national title with a throw of 16.90m, her second-best mark of the season, which is below her winning mark of 17.01m in 2025.

Competing in only her second Nigerian championships, Oladipo has now won gold in both appearances.