December 28, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s sports scene had a mixed year in 2022, with both highs and lows with women in athletics bringing in the most highs and Nigeria’s first-ever World Record holder, Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan, leading that drive.
One of the biggest disappointments of the year was the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar. While football fans in the country took in the splendour of the Qatari extravaganza and the quality of the action all the way to the thriller of a final between Argentina, the eventual winners, and France, the losing defending champions, many fans could not help wondering what could have been had Nigeria booked her ticket to Qatar instead of Ghana.
Yet, not for the first time, and perhaps not the last, the Augustine Eguaveon-led team fell short in the final leg of their qualifying campaign with a 1-1 draw against the Black Stars, who qualified instead based on the away-goals rule. It meant that the Super Eagles missed out on the chance to represent Nigeria on the global stage. The exploits of the Atlas Lions of Morocco may have been pointed to as an example of what an African side like the Super Eagles can produce, yet this wishful thinking flies against the face of the reality of how much Morocco has invested in improving the quality of their football in terms of dedicated planning, grooming of future stars from a world-class football Academy and the purposeful infusion of energies to better the standards of their domestic football. The results are there to see in the performance of their National teams, the male team in Qatar and the female team at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, where the Super Falcons showed another 2022 decline.
In truth, the Super Falcons also faced a tough year, as the signs of a shift of dominance in women’s football on the continent appeared on the horizon all over again. By the end of the AFCON, it was no longer debatable that the Super Falcons were losing their leading place on the continent to South Africa’s Banyana Banyana. The Falcons have long been a dominant force in African women’s football, taking home more than 90% of the titles available in the African female game. Yet, the decline that was evident the year before, when the Banyana Banyana whipped them in the final of the Aisha Buhari Invitational to lift the maiden trophy, reared its head in full. Beaten again by South Africa at the group stage of the Morocco-hosted competition, the Super Falcons struggled to maintain their previous level of success in 2022 and skimped through the AFCON to manage a measly and disappointing fourth-place finish, barely qualifying for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
In the world of boxing, Nigerian-British Heavyweight Champion, Anthony Joshua, suffered another major setback when he lost his attempt to regain his heavyweight championship titles from Ukrainian champion, Oleksandr Usyk, who had claimed the IBF, WBA and WBO titles from Joshua in September the previous year via points. Joshua had been a dominant force in the boxing world with 24 victories, 22 of which were via knockouts, and only two losses before Usyk made it three. However, the defeat to the Ukrainian marked the end of his reign as champion and it is yet unclear how he will proceed in his career. In other ring fighting, Nigeria’s UFC fighters also had a tough year, with Welterweight Champion, Kamuru Usman and Middleweight Champion, Israel Adesanya, both losing their titles to Leon Edwards and Alex Pereira, respectively. It was a disappointing year for these talented athletes, who had previously been at the top of their respective divisions.
The country’s basketball teams, which were often stymied by government interference due to administrative tussles in the Basketball Federation, had a strong showing at the African Games. The progress recorded were almost completely obliterated when the Federal Government unilaterally within the male and female teams from all competitions at home and abroad for two years to allow it sort out the leadership issues besetting the Federation and put some grassroots development plan in place for the future. This ban was in place long enough to force the international governing Basketball body (FIBA) to replace D’Tigress with Mali, in the draw for the next World competition for which the female players had dedicated their efforts to qualifying. It was another painful landmark of the year.
However, there were also many bright spots in Nigerian sports in 2022. One of the biggest highlights of the year was the strong performance of Nigerian women athletes at the Commonwealth Games. Led by Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan, who broke the world record in the 100m hurdles at the World Championships in Oregon before going on to win gold at the Commonwealth Games, the Nigerian women dominated the competition. Overall, Nigeria had its best-ever performance at the Commonwealth Games, finishing as the seventh-best team in the competition and the highest-ranked African country among the participating nations. The country won a total of 12 gold, 9 silver, and 14 bronze medals, surpassing its previous best Commonwealth Games record set in 1994. Every one of these gold medals was won by a female athlete, including Mercy Genesis Miesinnei (weightlifting 50 kg), Oborududu Blessing (wrestling 68kg), Brume Ese (long jump), and Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Grace Nwokocha, and Amusan (4x100m relay).
While there were certainly challenges and setbacks in Nigerian sports in 2022, there were also many achievements to celebrate. With high hopes and expectations for the future, we look forward to a better year in 2023. The challenges and setbacks faced by Nigerian sports in 2022 aside, Nigerians still found much to be proud of, especially with Amusan forgetting how to lose, being nominated for World Athletics athlete of the year and finishing the year as the best African athlete and with footballers like Victor Osimhen, lighting up the Italian top flight with his flair for goals making the masked player an exciting spectacle to watch, implies that there is much to look forward to in the future.
What the country requires is a crop of talented athletes and dedicated coaches, who are backed by corporate and government sponsorships and given the necessities to have their determination to excel fuelled by the home support and, without a doubt, Nigeria will be well positioned to continue its success on the global stage. As we look ahead to 2023, there is hope and expectation that this will be the case for even greater achievements in sports.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
