Nigerian-born athletes shine for other countries at World Championship in Budapest

With Nigeria yet to appear on the medals table at the on-going World Athletics Championship in Budapest, Nigerians are shinning  for other countries as the competition gets midway.

Both  Ayomide Folorunso and Kemi Adekoya, representing Italy and Bahrain respectively have qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 400m hurdles, at the 2023 World Athletics Championship.

Both athletes applied strong finishing Heat 3 to make the semifinals at the world championship in Budapest.

Kemi Adekoya of Bahrain

While Folorunso clocked a time of 54.30s, Adekoya clocked a new Asian record of 53.56s to win the heat.

Folorunso was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State in 1996 but settled in Fidenza, Italy, with her parents in 2004

Adekoya established herself as a hurdler at national level in Nigeria in 2011, placing fifth at the Nigerian championships.

In 2012, she improved her best to 57.16 seconds to place second at the Confederation of African Athletics meet in Warri.

That year she was runner-up at the Nigerian Olympic trials, but did not have the sufficient qualifying standard.

The African countries already on the medal table are Ethiopia in third place with one gold, one silver and two bronze, Burkina Faso and Uganda in joint sixth with one gold each, while Botswana and Kenya are in joint 13th with one silver.