With the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 46 days away, Nigerian athletes have been recording a remarkable run of individual performances across multiple sports, with the National Sports Commission setting an ambitious target of at least 20 gold medals and a top-five finish. From the track to the wrestling mat and the shot put circle, a crop of athletes in the finest form of their careers are primed to carry the green-and-white flag, PETER AKINBO writes Tobi Amusan (Athletics — 100m hurdles) The world record holder enters the Commonwealth Games having already demonstrated she is in the form of her life. Amusan opened the 2026 season by winning a fourth consecutive African title in Accra before embarking on a Diamond League campaign that has been among the most consistent of her career. She finished third in Shanghai, second in Xiamen — where she clocked a season’s best of 12.28 seconds — before winning in Rabat, where she broke her own meeting record of 12.45 seconds set in 2025. Most recently, she claimed gold and set a new meet record at the New Taipei Athletics Open in Taiwan, crossing the line in 12.72 seconds despite running against a headwind of -0.3 metres per second. Her 12.28-second performance remains among the fastest times recorded globally this year and sits third on her all-time personal list, behind only her world record of 12.12 seconds set at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene and the 12.24 seconds she clocked at the Meeting de Paris in 2025. Kanyinsola Ajayi (Athletics — 100m) The name that has most electrified Nigerian athletics in recent memory. The 20-year-old Auburn University sprinter staked his claim as a world-class talent at the NCAA East Regional Championships, clocking 9.84 seconds with a legal wind reading of +0.4 metres per second to shatter Olusoji Fasuba’s Nigerian record of 9.85 seconds — a mark that had stood for 20 years since it was set in Doha in May 2006. The run simultaneously installed Ajayi as the 2026 world leader in the men’s 100m and the fastest Nigerian man in history, placing him ahead of distinguished names including Divine Oduduru, Seun Ogunkoya and Davidson Ezinwa. Even Fasuba, who held the record for two decades, has publicly backed the youngster to chase the African record of 9.77 seconds held by Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala. He still must come through the AFN national trials in Lagos from June 20 to 22 to secure his Commonwealth Games spot, but if he does, he will arrive in Glasgow as one of the most dangerous sprinters in the field. Samuel Ogazi (Athletics — 400m) While Ajayi grabbed the headlines at the NCAA East Regional Championships, Ogazi was quietly making his own history on the same afternoon. The University of Alabama quarter-miler set a new personal best of 43.82 seconds in the 400m to sit atop the 2026 global rankings in his event — becoming only the second Nigerian, alongside Ajayi, to lead the world in a sprint discipline in the same week.
