Ofili Still Represents Nigeria, Finishes Second In Hungary Thriller

Nigeria’s track and field officials were on Tuesday granted a faint ray of hope that estranged sprinter, Favour Ofili could yet be dissuaded from switching allegiance to Turkey, as she featured in the women’s 200m under the green-white-green flag at the 2025 World Athletics Continental Tour in Hungary.

Sports247 gathered that, in contrast with widely publicised reports about a quickfire switch by Ofili in June, the sprinter, who grew up in Delta State and blossomed as an undergraduate at the University of Port Harcourt, is yet to finalise documentation that would confirm her to officially run for Turkey.

Based on that delay, the graduate of Louisiana State University, USA had to feature under Nigeria’s banner at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix inside the imposing Bregyo Athletic Centre and she went on to create history by being part of one of the tightest photo finishes in world athletics history.

Ofili (aka Star Girl) ended up creating a major talking point on Tuesday, as she edged ahead of pre-race favourite, Daryll Neita of Great Britain, who placed third with 22.37s and the embittered Nigerian sprinter pulled off a dramatic photo finish with Jamaica’s Ashanti Moore.

The scoreboard timed Ofili and Moore both at 22.31s, but the Jamaican ace appeared to snatch first spot on the log with a quicker and longer dip of her head at the tape, which put her a fragment ahead of the Nigerian.

While Moore pulled off a new personal best, it was a disappointing result for Ofili, who holds the Nigerian record at 21.96s and already has a season’s fastest time of 22.00s, which she was hoping to beat during Tuesday’s race in Szekestenervar.

Aside from the dramatic photo finish, though, Sports247 gathered that officials of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) are already running around in a bold attempt at getting Ofili to rescind her move of switching allegiance to Turkey.

It was further learnt that the small Nigeria delegation in Hungary is being backed by some top shots of the National Sports Commission (NSC) in a last ditch effort at urging Ofili to change her mind about dumping her country of birth.

Sports247.ng