GLASGOW 2026 REVIEW: RECORDS, BREAKTHROUGHS AND A TARGET MISSED
Team Nigeria completed its Commonwealth Games campaign with 24 medals:
🥇 10 gold
🥈 7 silver
🥉 7 bronze
Nigeria sit sixth in the latest official standings and remain the highest-ranked African nation.
🏃🏾 ATHLETICS DELIVERS 13 MEDALS
Athletics and para athletics produced more than half of Nigeria’s medals, with four gold, three silver and six bronze.
Samuel Ogazi stormed to the men’s 400m title in 44.25 seconds, while Ezekiel Nathaniel won the men’s 400m hurdles in 48.47 seconds.
Chukwuebuka Enekwechi claimed men’s shot put gold, while Goodness Nwachukwu successfully defended her para discus title with a world-record throw of 39.66m.
Udodi Onwuzurike won silver in the men’s 200m, Ruth Usoro finished second in the women’s long jump, and Jessica Oji earned women’s shot put silver.
Nigeria’s athletics bronze medals came through Kanyinsola Ajayi in the men’s 100m, Tobi Amusan in the women’s 100m hurdles, Ella Onojuvwevwo in the women’s 400m and Temitope Adeshina in the women’s high jump.
The men’s 4x100m team of Favour Ashe, Kanyinsola Ajayi, Nicholas Fakorede and Udodi Onwuzurike also claimed bronze in 38.12 seconds, with Chidera Ezeakor contributing during the heats.
Ezekiel Nathaniel, Patience Okon-George, Samuel Ogazi and Ella Onojuvwevwo completed the athletics haul by winning mixed 4x400m bronze in a season’s best of 3:12.85.
🏋🏾♀️ PARA POWERLIFTERS SET THE STANDARD
Nigeria began the Games with six para powerlifting medals.
Esther Nworgu, Folashade Oluwafemiayo and Riluwan Idris won gold, with Oluwafemiayo producing a world-record 175kg lift.
Roland Ezuruike, Esther Oyema and Rita Ferdinand added three silver medals to complete another impressive competition for Nigeria’s para powerlifters.
🏋🏾 THREE WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONS
Edidiong Umoafia won the men’s 71kg title with a 319kg total before Onome Didih and Rafiatu Lawal delivered gold medals in the women’s 53kg and 58kg events.
Lawal broke Commonwealth Games records in the snatch, clean and jerk and total, while Didih completed all six of her attempts successfully.
Ruth Nyong added silver in the women’s 48kg after recovering from two missed clean-and-jerk attempts to complete 93kg on her final lift.
🥋 EKUTA EARNS JUDO BRONZE
Enku Ekuta secured Nigeria’s only medal outside athletics and the two lifting disciplines.
After losing her quarter-final, Ekuta fought through the repechage and defeated Zambia’s Rita Kabinda by ippon in the women’s 63kg bronze-medal contest.
📈 PROGRESS BEYOND THE PODIUM
Abduljabar Adama reached the men’s 50m freestyle semi-finals as Nigeria continued to make progress in swimming.
Nigeria also recorded historic victories in men’s 3×3 basketball and women’s 3×3 wheelchair basketball. The wheelchair team defeated India 7-6 before its campaign ended against Australia in the quarter-final play-in.
Oyindamola Abdullahi Tijani and pilot Okeyah Bethel Temple represented Nigeria in para track cycling, another discipline in which the country is still developing its international experience.
However, Nigeria finished without a medal in boxing, swimming, basketball or cycling. The boxing campaign was particularly disappointing, with none of the country’s representatives reaching the podium.
📊 THE FINAL VERDICT
Nigeria’s 24 medals represent a respectable performance, but the campaign fell short of the National Sports Commission’s projection of between 16 and 20 gold medals. Team Nigeria finished with 10.
The medal count also dropped from the 35 won at Birmingham 2022, although Glasgow featured a reduced 10-sport programme that excluded some of Nigeria’s traditional medal sources, including wrestling and para table tennis.
Most concerning is the concentration of success. Athletics, para powerlifting and weightlifting produced 23 of Nigeria’s 24 medals and all 10 golds.
Glasgow produced champions, world records and encouraging breakthroughs, but it also showed the need to develop greater medal depth in boxing, swimming, cycling and team sports.
How would you rate Team Nigeria’s Glasgow 2026 campaign out of 10?
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