Republic of Ireland’s Nigerian-born sprinter, Toluwabori ‘Bori’ Akinola pulled off a sensational shock to clinch silver in the men’s 60m final at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting, while Chukwuebuka Enekwechi placed third in shot put.
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Sports247 reports that, while Enekwechi struggled for form during the sixth World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold event of the season, Akinola’s stunning run was a major talking point in the Serbian capital’s Atletska d’ Vorana.
In the men’s shot put, world indoor silver medallist, Roger Steen defeated his United States’ compatriot Jordan Geist, who started as the world leader, but placed second with 21.51m, while Nigeria’s Enekwechi was third on 21.28m.
After four false starts, the men’s 60m final got under way at the fifth time of asking and was won by Hungary’s Dominik Illovszky in a meeting and national record of 6.52s ahead of Akinola, who got an Irish record of 6.54.
Sports247 gathered further that Akinola, who was born on August 6th, 2001, became Irish national champion over 60 metres and 100 metres in 2025, then set a new Irish national record for 60m in 2026.
All these came after he moved to Ireland from Lagos in September 2017, with his mother, older brother and younger sister, then attended Community College in Balbriggan.
The fast-rising sprinter, who studied computer science at University College Dublin, and later worked as an iOS engineer, was 17 years-old when he went to his first training session with Fingallians Athletics Club in 2018.
He won a 100m silver medal at the Irish Championships in 2023, behind another Nigerian-born runner, Israel Olatunde, who also beat him at the 2024 edition, but they were together in Ireland’s 4x100m relay squad at the 2024 European Meet.
Akinola also won the 60m with 6.65 seconds at the Meeting Indoor de Lyon, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting and, the following week, he won gold at the EAP Glasgow with 6.59secs.
