Nigeria’s participation in the 2025 World Athletics Indoor in Nanjing, China has already been dealt a blow by visa issues which have reduced the number of athletes registered by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, TheNigerian Sports Extra reports.
The event is set to take place in Nanjing, China, from Friday (today) till Sunday, March 23.
The World Athletics had published names of 10 Nigerian athletes for the meet earlier this week but the number has been reduced to five.
The 10 listed athletes include shot put thrower Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, new African 400m indoor record holder Ezekiel Nathaniel, Chidi Okezie, Temitope Adeshina and Paris Olympics finalist Prestina Ochonogor.
Others are Ediddiong Udo, James Onwuka, Ifeanyi Ojeli, Success Umukoro and Joshua Caleb.
The Nigerian roster had eight males and two females with the major events being women’s 60m, high jump, long jump, 400m, shot put and men’s 4x400m relay.
While some of the athletes confirmed for participation have arrived in China for the event which begins today, our correspondent gathered that the others were denied by delays in visa processing.
Before the depletion hit team Nigeria, our correspondent also gathered that the AFN made frantic efforts to get the athletes to China after it initially considered not honouring the competition due to the busy schedule of most Nigerian athletes in the NCAA.
One of the athletes in China also revealed the process to our correspondent.
“They requested for our passports some three or four weeks ago for visa processing and all of that,” the athlete, who asked for his identity not to be revealed, said.
“Some passports got to them early and some didn’t make it early enough. That’s why we find ourselves in this situation.”
According to World Athletics, the championship will feature 576 athletes from 127 countries, including 11 individual defending champions and 20 Paris 2024 Olympic medallists. The participants include 264 women and 312 men.
Defending champions from the last edition in Glasgow set to compete in Nanjing include world record holders Mondo Duplantis (pole vault), Devynne Charlton (60m hurdles), and Grant Holloway (60m hurdles), as well as Molly Caudery (pole vault), Tsige Duguma (800m), Hamish Kerr (high jump), Thea Lafond (triple jump), Sarah Mitton (shot put), Nicola Olyslagers (high jump), Miltiadis Tentoglou (long jump), and Hugues Fabrice Zango (triple jump).
Several of these champions—Duplantis, Holloway, Kerr, Lafond, and Tentoglou—went on to win Olympic gold in Paris last year. They will be joined by fellow Olympic champions Yaroslava Mahuchikh (high jump) and Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1500m and 3000m), who are also world record holders.
Among the notable home athletes in action will be China’s Olympic and two-time world shot put champion Gong Lijiao and two-time global triple jump medallist Zhu Yaming.
