NIGERIAN sprinter and 150m world record holder, Favour Ofili, has reportedly changed her sporting nationality to Turkey, barely three months before the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
A Jamaica-based sports journalist, Kayon Raynor, made the claim on X on Sunday. He said ‘impeccable’ @TvjNewscentre sources confirmed the claim.
According to him, Ofili attributed her decision to missing out on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the failure of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the Nigeria Olympic Committee to register her for the 100m event at the last Olympics in Paris.
“Ofili stated that the Nigerian Athletics Federation caused her to miss the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after they did not confirm her number of doping control tests, and then missed competing in the 100m at the Paris Olympics after they did not enter her for the event. She was sixth in the 200m final.
Meanwhile, Ofili is still officially listed as a Nigerian athlete on her World Athletics profile.
The 22-year-old is among the Nigerian athletes who have secured qualification for the World Championships scheduled for September 13 to 21 in Tokyo.
In May, she made headlines at the Adidas Atlanta City Games by setting a new 150m world record of 15.85 seconds, surpassing the previous 16.23s record held by Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
As of the time of filing this report, she has yet to react to the claim.
Fatimah Quadri is a Journalist and a Fact-checker at The ICIR. She has written news articles, fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy in an effort to combat information disorder.
She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org