Kanyinsola Ajayi:We Have Seen This Before.

By Olakunle Osisanya fdc
olakunleosisanyag@gmail.com

Nigeria’s quest for an Olympics and World Athletics Championships (WAC) men’s 100m gold medal has received impetus with the emergence of Kanyinsola Ajayi.

Kanyinsola has dominated the 2026 men’s 100m international athletics season, with his latest victory coming from the just concluded London Diamond League.

At the finish line, the expressive prodigy made a cheeky gesture, which has drawn contrasting interpretations.

Kanyinsola, contrary to popular perception of being one of our diaspora athletes, actually developed from Ikorodu in Lagos state and rose through the local athletics circuit.

His achievements are highlighted by the 100m Semi-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics and finalist in the 100m at the 2025 WAC in Tokyo, Japan.

His personal best of 9.84 is a joint national record, which is indicative that he is not the first Nigerian male 100m runner to make the limelight.

Kanyinsola joins an elite company who dominated their athletics season, made the Olympics or WAC finals only for the gold medal to prove elusive for Nigeria. These include Olapade Adeniken, Davidson Ezinwa, Francis Obikwelu, Olusoji Fasuba and Enoch Adegoke etc.

While not trying to ascribe any particular reason for the failure to translate season dominance to Olympics finals gold medal, I strongly suspect inadequate psychological preparation and athlete burnout.

To win a gold medal cannot depend on luck but deliberate planning. The emergence of Kanyinsola Ajayi therefore offers Nigeria with another opportunity to achieve this noble objective.

At this point, Kayinsola needs a psychologist and serious guidance to avoid distractions from variants of the 3Ws. Moderation with the fairer gender, extreme care with food, drinks and medication and readiness for sudden mandatory drugs testing by WADA to avoid intimidation.

To prevent burnout in the count down to the next Olympics and WAC, he needs financial support to moderate and manage his number of events and exposures. Thus, this is a call to affluent sports lovers, governments and the private sector in Nigeria to rise up to the challenge.

In conclusion, the management of this prodigy and keeping him focused enough to earn important medals for Nigeria should be a collective responsibility and a task that can be done, pls.