Nigeria’s top female hammer thrower and shot put athlete, Oyesade Olatoye has set her sight on winning a gold medal for the country at the upcoming World Athletics Championship in Tokyo, Japan.
Sports247 reports that the 28-year-old Olatoye, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA but switched allegiance in 2019 to compete for Nigeria, is happy with her performances so far this year, but wants to do better in the coming days.
After enacting a personal season’s best of 70.27m in the hammer throw event of the recent Edmonton Athletics Invitational in Canada, Olatoye conceded that she has to maintain her resilience and get better heading into Tokyo 2025.
The graduate of Ohio State University in the USA disclosed, “I keep on just striving to do my best. There is still so much more of the season left, and I need to see what it’s going to be like towards the end of September. Maybe a few weeks after now, we’ll see how it goes and take the final preparation. There’s more time for that.”
Olatoye, who first represented Nigeria at the 2019 World Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar and was at the Africa Games in the same year, added that each member of the country’s contingent to Japan 2025 will aim to give their best, especially with support from various sectors towards the competition, which is scheduled to hold from September 13 to 21.
She further disclosed, “I expect all my teammates to also perform at the highest level; given the proper resources and support that we get. I know that we are capable of so much. I’m also happy we have such support from our peers and the federation.”
Olatoye concluded with words of assurance about the determination that she and her colleagues have regarding winning medals for Nigeria at each competition they attend, including the forthcoming one in Japan.
“That’s something we’ll continue to strive for in order to make our country proud, but we need more support to encourage us. We hope to get better support every year, and we’ll try to do what is expected of us as well,” she pledged wholeheartedly.
Sports247 gathered that Olatoye’s achievements in shot put include silver at the 2023 African Games; while for hammer throw she has bronze at the 2023 Africa Games as well as silver at the 2024 African Championship and gold from the 2022 edition in Saint Pierre, Mauritius.
