2023 will be a busy year for Nigerian sports as the country will participate in some key sporting events around the world.
These competitions will give Team Nigeria another chance to recreate or even surpass their impressive performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where Nigeria emerged as the best performing African nation with 12 gold, 9 silver and 14 medals. made of bronze.
trust sports highlights some of the major events in 2023 where the country’s flag will be raised on the world stage.
fifa women’s world cup
The ninth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup is scheduled to take place from July 20 to August 20 in two countries, New Zealand and Australia.
The Super Falcons, who have been around since their inception in 1991, had a tough draw after being drawn into Group B with one of the co-hosts Australia, plus Canada and Ireland.
The Super Falcons will begin their FIFA campaign against Canada before other games against Australia and Ireland. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be played from February 17 to 23, 2023.
World Athletics Championships 2023
Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay and mixed 4x400m relay will again lead the way at the World Athletics Guangzhou 23 World Relays, previously scheduled in Budapest, Hungary, in August 2023.
The two relay teams booked their place in Budapest following World Athletics’ review of the qualifying system.
The Nigerian women’s 4x100m relay team will compete with the USA, Jamaica, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland in the women’s 4x100m in a revamped ranking system published by World Athletics.
In the 4x400m mixed relay event, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, the United States, Poland, Jamaica, Nigeria, Italy and Ireland will compete for the medals.
It will also be a chance for world champion Tobi Amusan to prove that her impressive performance and world record in Oregon, USA, was not a fluke.
All Africa Games 2023
The African ‘Olympics’ will be hosted by Ghana and the 13th edition is expected to be held in three Ghanaian cities on dates yet to be confirmed.
The city of Accra will host more than 4,000 athletes from 55 countries, including Nigeria.
However, Ghana, which is hosting the quadrennial continental sports festival for the first time since its inception in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo has come under heavy criticism over whether the country can meet the August 2023 deadline for the masterpiece.
According to reports from Ghana, Dr. Kweku Ofosu-Asare, CEO of the Accra 2023 LOC, has always held the view that Ghana would successfully host the Games.
“I am very optimistic that Ghana would host one of the best Games ever. In fact, following the deadlines that the African Union Commission gave us, we at the LOC are working hard to make sure that we meet those schedules and that we can organize the Games quite well.”
The LOC has been working in conjunction with the African Union Commission (AUC), owners of the Games, to put together a formidably eye-pleasing sports festival, regardless of the fact that the Olympic-sized stadium in Borteyman, which was initially designed to hold almost all the games, would not be ready, next August.
Commonwealth Youth Games 2023
Trinidad and Tobago will play host to the 74th Commonwealth Gaming Association, of which Nigeria is a member.
The seventh edition will be the first to be held since the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III as Head of the Commonwealth and reigning monarch of the Commonwealth Realms on 8 September 2022.
A total of seven sports have been confirmed to participate in the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games. They are Aquatics, Athletics, Cycling, Fast5 Netball, Rugby Sevens, Triathlon and Beach Volleyball.
Scheduled to take place August 4-11, athletes ages 14-18 will compete in two groups, one in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago.
African Youth Games 2023
Scheduled for April, the African Youth Games will be hosted by Brazzaville and are expected to feature competitions in some 30 sports and attract around 4,500 participants scheduled to start in April.
Nigeria will be taking part in a couple of events, but all eyes will be on football, where Nigeria’s youth footballers, known as the “Future Eagles”, will look to recapture the gold medal won at the 2014 Games in Gaborone.
In 2018 he got silver after a final defeat against Morocco in Algiers.
The Games, organized by the Association of African National Olympic Committees (ANOCA), are designed for the same 14-18 age group as the Youth Olympic Games. They were first held in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, in 2010, but have not been held since 2018 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
IHF Men’s Africa Trophy
The continental phase of the IHF Trophy Africa junior and junior men’s tournaments will take place in Brazzaville, Congo from January 16-20, 2023.
The event will serve as a qualifying event for the Intercontinental Phase of the IHF Trophy.
At the youth levels, Nigeria will face Burundi, Congo, Guinea, and Zambia, while at the youth level, Nigeria will face Congo, Guinea, Madagascar, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.
AFCON Sub-20
The 17th edition of the biennial African international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football will take place in Egypt from February 19 to March 11, 2023.
The tournament also doubled as an African qualifier for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup to be held in Indonesia. The four best teams will qualify for the World Cup.
Nigeria, which has won it three times ((2005, 2011, 2015) is in group A along with host Egypt, Mozambique and Senegal.
AFCON Sub-17
The 15th edition of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations 2023 for players aged 17 and under will be held in Algeria from 8-30 April.
The four best teams in the tournament will qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru as CAF representatives. It is scheduled to take place from April 8 to 30. Nigeria won the tournament in 2001 and 2007.
