Tobi Amusan and Kanyinsola Ajayi will lead Nigeria’s pursuit of the biggest prize in athletics when the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship begins in Budapest, Hungary, on Friday.
Amusan, Ajayi, Ezekiel Nathaniel, Udodi Onwuzurike and Ella Onojuvwevwo are Nigeria’s five individual entrants for the three-day competition at the National Athletics Centre.
Each individual champion will earn $150,000, worth more than ₦200 million, from the record $10 million prize fund announced for the championship.
Nigeria will also compete in the mixed 4x100m relay, taking the country’s overall representation to nine athletes because Amusan and Onwuzurike are entered in both individual and relay events.
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The official World Athletics entry list names Alaba Akintola, Favour Ashe, Onwuzurike, Amusan, Oluebube Ezechukwu and Rosemary Nwankwo in the six-member relay squad.
A quartet of two men and two women will be selected to represent Nigeria in the final.
Amusan provides Nigeria’s strongest individual medal hope in the women’s 100m hurdles.
The 2022 world champion and former world record-holder enters the competition ranked second in the world, with a season’s best of 12.23 seconds.
Her lifetime best of 12.12secs, set on the way to winning the world title in Oregon four years ago, remained the world record until Masai Russell clocked 12.09secs in 2026.
Russell heads the Budapest field, which also includes world champion Ditaji Kambundji, Devynne Charlton and Nadine Visser.
The women’s hurdles semi-finals and final will both take place on Friday, giving Amusan little room for error in the championship’s condensed format.
Ajayi will contest a similarly competitive men’s 100m on Saturday.
The 22-year-old is ranked fourth in the world and arrives with a personal and season’s best of 9.84secs, placing him among Nigeria’s leading medal prospects.
Ajayi will face a field featuring Oblique Seville, Kenny Bednarek, Akani Simbine, Christian Coleman, Marcell Jacobs and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo.
The Nigerian defeated Seville when he produced his 9.84secs personal best earlier in the season, demonstrating his ability to challenge the event’s leading performers.
Both the semi-finals and final will be staged on Saturday evening, meaning Ajayi must negotiate two high-intensity races within a few hours to reach the podium.
Nathaniel will carry Nigeria’s hopes in the men’s 400m hurdles after establishing himself among the world’s top three performers.
The 23-year-old is ranked third on the entry list, with a personal best of 47.11secs and a season’s best of 47.37secs.
His major rivals include Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, who lowered the world record to 45.80secs this season, and former record-holder Karsten Warholm of Norway.
The presence of dos Santos and Warholm makes the event one of the championship’s most anticipated contests, but Nathaniel’s consistency and rapid improvement have placed him firmly in medal contention.
The semi-finals will be decided on Saturday before the finalists return on Sunday.
Onwuzurike will line up in the men’s 200m and could also be called upon for the mixed relay.
The former world junior champion holds a personal best of 19.76secs, although his season’s best of 20.09secs places him outside the leading group on paper.
He is ranked 17th in the world and will need to reproduce his best form against a field containing Tebogo, Bednarek, Andre De Grasse, Sinesipho Dambile and Bryan Levell.
The men’s 200m semi-finals and final will take place on Sunday, giving Onwuzurike time to recover should he feature in Friday’s relay.
Onojuvwevwo completes Nigeria’s individual line-up in the women’s 400m.
The 20-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough season, lowering her personal best to 49.47secs and climbing to 15th in the world rankings.
She faces a formidable field containing Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino, Salwa Eid Naser, Henriette Jæger, Nickisha Pryce and Natalia Bukowiecka.
Onojuvwevwo will run in Friday’s semi-finals, with the final scheduled for Saturday.
Nigeria’s mixed 4x100m team enters the championship with a season’s best of 40.24secs, the sixth-fastest mark among the nine competing countries.
Jamaica head the entry list with their world record of 39.62secs, followed by Great Britain, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. The United States, Spain and hosts Hungary complete the field.
With only four of Nigeria’s six registered relay athletes able to compete, the final selection will determine whether Amusan and Onwuzurike combine their individual programmes with relay duties.
The Ultimate Championship brings together 381 athletes from 65 federations across 28 disciplines, with smaller fields and a knockout format designed to ensure that every race features leading international competitors.
For Nigeria, the championship offers Amusan another opportunity to challenge for a global hurdles title, while Ajayi, Nathaniel, Onwuzurike and Onojuvwevwo will attempt to turn their impressive seasons into podium finishes.
The mixed relay also gives Nigeria an additional medal route in Budapest, where the country’s leading athletes will compete for prestige and the richest prize money ever offered at a global athletics championship.
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