World Athletics U20 Championship: Jessica Oji Claims Women’s Shot Put Gold For Nigeria
By Saheed Afolabi
Team Nigeria’s Jessica Oji has been crowned World U20 champion in the women’s shot put after producing a dominant performance in Eugene, Oregon.
The 19-year-old sealed gold in the early hours of Friday with a best throw of 18.08 metres. She opened the final with 18.05m, improved to the winning mark of 18.08m on her second attempt, followed with 17.95m, and closed with another strong effort of 18.07m. Oji was the only athlete in the competition to surpass the 18-metre barrier.
Ecuador’s Belsy Quiñonez took silver with 17.90m, while Germany’s Emily Scherf claimed bronze with 17.23m.
Oji had earlier topped the qualification round with a single throw of 17.56m, comfortably clearing the automatic standard of 16.00m.
The victory, coming just nine days after she won Commonwealth Games silver in Glasgow with a throw of 17.87m, marks a landmark moment for Nigerian athletics. Oji becomes Nigeria’s first-ever World U20 champion in a field event and the country’s first athlete to win a world title in a field discipline at any level.
Born on 23 June 2007 and raised in the United States, Oji switched her sporting allegiance from the USA to Nigeria in February 2026. A freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, she had already established herself as one of the world’s most promising young throwers.
Before representing Nigeria, she was crowned USA U20 shot put champion in 2025 and repeatedly rewrote the Ivy League record, progressing from 17.72m in December 2025 to a personal best of 18.50m at the Ivy League Indoor Championships in March 2026, a mark that stood as the African record at the time. She also holds the Nigerian under-20 discus record with a throw of 55.12m set in May 2026.
On her competitive debut for Nigeria at the Tiger Paw Invitational in February, Oji set a new national under-20 shot put record of 17.74m. She followed that with Commonwealth silver on her senior international debut, becoming the first Nigerian woman to win the medal in the event since Vivian Chukwuemeka in 2006.
