Joy Udo-Gabriel

Born on 2 June 1999, Joy Udo-Gabriel has taken the track by storm since her emergence as the fastest schoolgirl in Lagos State in 2015 at the tender age of 16! She was discovered at the Benin Auditions of the Top Sprinter Reality Show produced by Making of Champions (MoC), where she famously said “The race is for the legs and the law is for the brain!” when asked how she intended to combine her Education and Athletics!

Udo-Gabriel’s first competition as an MoC athlete was the 2016 National Junior Champs where she won her heat and she also competed at her first National Senior Trials that year. Her impressive form saw her become a beneficiary of MoC’s Student-Athlete Scholarship under the sponsorship of by Oil & Gas Company, ARCO Group. In 2017, she went on to win Silver in the 100m/200m at the AFN/MoC National U-20 Champs later that month.

2018 proved to be a turning point in Udo-Gabriel’s career as she represented Nigeria for the first time at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, setting a Personal Best (PB) of 11.42s in the 100m to make the Semi-Finals on her Nigeria debut, before running a fantastic lead leg to win 4x100m Bronze with a time of 42.75s alongside Blessing Okagbare, Tobi Amusan and Rosemary Chukwuma – that was her very first international medal for Nigeria.

Udo-Gabriel amassed seven more international medals for Nigeria in 2018 in what was a breakout year for her. She won the 100m and 200m sprint double and 4x100m Silver at the 2018 ECOWAS (West African) U-20 Champs in Cape Coast where she emerged the overall best female athlete.

The young star won 100m Bronze and 4x100m GOLD at her maiden African Senior Championships in Asaba in 2018. Not done with her international exploits, Udo-Gabriel emerged the fastest girl at the 2018 West Africa University Games (WAUG) in Port Harcourt, where she also won 4x100m Silver while representing the University of Lagos!

Udo-Gabriel also claimed 100m Bronze at her first National Sports Festival (NSF) in Abuja in 2018, capping off the year winning Discovery of the Year at the Nigerian Sports Awards! She went on to star for Nigeria at the 2019 World Relays in Japan before claiming 4x100m GOLD at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, where she was also a 100m Finalist. She also made her World Championships debut at Doha 2019 in the 4x100m, capping off her meteoric rise to regular member of Nigeria’s Senior Team, achieving all this at just 20 years of age!

In 2019, Udo-Gabriel won 16 out of 22 races in the 100m and 200m globally, including representing MoC Track Club at Meets in Southern Africa (Botswana) and Europe (Italy). Udo-Gabriel is looking forward to qualifying for and representing Nigeria at the Olympics in 2021!