Ochonogor is Nigeria’s biggest mover in world athletics rankings

Ogazi, Ajayi Also Gain, Ofili Replaces Ese Brume

Long jumper, Prestina Ochonogor, has moved to number five in Nigeria and 611 in the world, making her the best Nigerian in the overall women rankings released by World Athletics.

Ochonogor made it to the final at both the Paris 2024 Olympics and the World U20 Championships in Lima, Peru. From her ranking as the 66th best in Nigeria and 7,323 best in the overall women rankings in January 2024, the long jumper has, within 10 months, moved to number five in Nigeria and 611 in the world.

This geometrical rise in ranking has made Ochonogor the biggest Nigerian mover in the weekly World Athletics Rankings. Ochonogor’s leap to national reckoning started in April 2023 at the African U18 Championships in Ndola, Zambia, where her 6.00m leap was not only good enough to fetch her a silver medal but was actually a lifetime best.

Exactly a year later, the 18-year old has joined the list of athletes who have hit the 6.70m mark. To prove her performance in Calabar where she jumped 6.79m was not influenced by anything, the tall and pretty Ochonogor went to the biggest athletics stage on earth and leapt into the final of the long jump event in her first attempt .

According to SportsNow, Ochonogor is not the only Nigerian female athlete who had this big move within a space of 10 months. Quartermiler, Esther Elo Joseph, who also raced into national reckoning in 2024, breaking 52 seconds six times this, was a 53.3 runner just a year ago.

Joseph has moved from being ranked 26th best in Nigeria and 3,560 in the world in January 2024 to sixth in Nigeria and 618 in the world in the women’s overall rankings.

Tobi Amusan still leads the women’s overall ranking in Nigeria with Favour Ofili replacing Ese Brume who has dropped down to the third from the second she was in January.

For the male athletes, Quartermiler Samuel Ogazi and sprinter Kanyinsola Ajayi are among the Nigerian biggest movers in the world rankings for 2024 following the latest update by World Athletics.

Both made their debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics and while Ogazi made it to the men’s 400m final, becoming in the process the first Nigerian to do so since Innocent Egbunike last did in 1988. Ajayi ran all the way to the semifinals of the 100m.

Ogazi was ranked the 18th best Nigerian in January 2024 with 1132 ranking score and 2,556th in the world at the same time but the 18-year-old has moved to second in Nigeria and 206th in the world with the 1322 the ranking score he garnered from his incredible performances in the outgone season.

He ran inside 45 seconds six times, a feat only Egbunike surpassed, including the 44.41 seconds he ran in the semifinal of the 400m at the Paris Olympics to set a new lifetime best.

The reigning African U-18 200m and 400m king is also ranked the 13th best in the world in his event as against his 164th ranking in January. Like Ogazi, Ajayi also had a geometrical rise to national and international reckoning in 2024.

Ranked the 278th best in the 100m in the world in January 2024 when he was just a 10.27 runner, Ajayi showed Nigeria is filled with loads of talents after his incredible rise. He first showed a glimpse of a star in the making when, in his first indoor season, he ran 6.60 to win the SEC Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.

Outdoors, he followed it up with seven runs inside 10.10 seconds including a 10.00 lifetime best performance at the Spitzen Leichtathletik meet in Luzern, Switzerland.

Ajayi began 2024 as the 25th best in Nigeria, 278th in the 100m and as the 3,013 best in the world but the 20-year-old will end the year as the 385th best in the men’s overall ranking, 25th best in the world in the 100m and the undisputed number one sprinter in Nigeria.