Tokyo 2025 World Championships: Enekwechi books final spot as Onyekwere-Lyons and Amaechi fall short in Discus throw

Team Nigeria athletes kick-started their outing at the Tokyo 2025 World Championships on a lukewarm note, as Chukwuebuka Enekwechi booked his spot in the men's shot put final, while Chioma Onyekwere-Lyons and Obiageri Amaechi fell short in the women's Discus throw.

In the morning session of Day 1 activities, Amaechi opened the campaign for Team Nigeria in the women's Discus throw qualification group A.

She threw a distance of 55.69m to finish 16th in the group, a far cry from the needed automatic qualifying mark of 64.00m or at least the top 12 best from both groups.

Onyekwere-Lyons had a better performance in the qualification group B, throwing a distance of 59.45m to finish 12th. Sadly, it couldn't earn her a spot as she was 20th overall in both groups.

Croatia's Sandra Elkasevic topped the qualifying rounds with a distance of 66.72m, Netherlands' Jorinde Van Klinken second with 66.39m, and Olympic champion Valerie Allman third with 66.09m.

Nigerian and African Record holder in the men's shot put ensured that the country will have a representative in the final, after his impressive throw of 20.83m secured him a spot.

Enekwechi's mark was enough to finish fifth in the qualifying group A, thus strengthening his rights as one of the world's best throwers.

It's the third consecutive time the big man will reach the final of a major championship, after the 2023 World Championships in Budapest and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games last summer.

This time in Tokyo, Enekwechi will be gunning for a podium placement or at least in the Top 5, which will require him to throw close to or farther than his personal best of 22.10m attained at the Eugene Diamond League earlier in the season.