Emmanuel Ojeli

Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ojeli is a man of many talents and is one to always run his heart out be it in the 100m, 200m or 400m! Born on 10 October 1998 in Asaba, Delta State, Ojeli has since metamorphosed into Nigeria’s No.1 quartermiler, a far cry from his humble beginnings back in the day when he used to trek to and from the stadium after training.

Ojeli was discovered at the 2016 Top Sprinter competition where he won the Boys 400m title. A year later, he won the 400m at the 2017 National Youth Games (NYG) while representing Delta State. Seeing a glimpse of all he could become, MoC moved in and snapped up Ojeli, relocating him to the Lagos Track Club to train with Olympic Medallist Deji Aliu, whilst also furthering his education.

In 2018, Ojeli was in action at the MoC Grand Prix in Lagos where he won the men’s 400m Final A, beating more established athletes in the process. Later that year, Ojeli went on to represent Team Lagos at the National Sports Festival in Abuja where he blazed to a new PB of 46.98s to finish 2nd in the semis, before going on to claim Bronze for the state in the final.
2019 was a breakout year for Ojeli! He made his first appearance at the Gaborone International Meet in Botswana where he raced in the B Final of the men’s 400m, chalking off more than a second from his previous PB and clocking a new one of 45.91s, the fastest time by a Nigerian quartermiler home or abroad at the time!

This earned him the 2019 African Games qualification in Morocco. At the National Championships held in Kaduna in July, Ojeli maintained his unbeaten run to claim his first national title! 2019 was also the season Ojeli represented the country for the first time as a member of Nigeria’s 4x400m GOLD-winning quartet at the 2019 Cameroon Grand Prix. His second appearance for Nigeria was at the African Games in Rabat.

Ojeli started on a good note, finishing a close 2nd in his heat, then placing 2nd in his semifinal race as well. He finished 6th in the final but went on to partner with Shedrack Akpeki, Samson Nathaniel and Chidi Okezie to win a Bronze medal in the 4x400m – his first international medal, to end his season on a high.

Ojeli has set his sights on representing Nigeria at the Tokyo Olympics and is looking forward to qualifying for the event!