Team Nigeria closed out the 2026 Commonwealth Games with its best showing among African nations, finishing seventh overall on the medals table with a haul of 24 medals, 10 gold, seven silver and seven bronze, built largely on a series of milestone performances in athletics that had never been achieved by Nigerians before.
The finish placed Nigeria ahead of both South Africa and Kenya as the continent’s top performer at the Games, though still well behind the tournament’s dominant nations. Australia topped the overall standings comfortably with 171 medals, including 70 golds, followed by England with 110 medals and Canada in third, while India, Scotland and New Zealand rounded out the top six.
What set Nigeria’s campaign apart wasn’t just the medal count but how many of those medals represented genuine firsts. Samuel Ogazi delivered one of the standout moments of the Games, winning the men’s 400 metres in 44.25 seconds to become the first Nigerian ever to claim Commonwealth gold in that event. Ezekiel Nathaniel matched that historic significance in the men’s 400m hurdles, becoming the first Nigerian man to win a Commonwealth title in the discipline. In the field events, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi added another milestone, capturing Nigeria’s first-ever Commonwealth gold in the men’s shot put.
Several other athletes added further depth to the medal tally. Ruth Usoro claimed silver in the women’s long jump in one of the best performances of her career, while Udodi Onwuzurike improved significantly on his sixth-place finish from Birmingham 2022 to take silver in the men’s 200 metres. Perhaps most symbolically, Ella Onojuvwevwo ended a 32-year wait for a Nigerian medal in the women’s 400 metres, securing bronze in a moment that closed out one of the longest medal droughts in the country’s Commonwealth Games history. World record holder Tobi Amusan added to her already decorated career with bronze in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Nigeria’s relay squads contributed meaningfully to the final count as well. The mixed 4x400m team won bronze in the event’s Commonwealth Games debut, while the men’s 4x100m team also claimed bronze after Canada was disqualified following a successful appeal.
Beyond the track and field program, Nigeria’s weightlifters, para-athletes, and judokas each played a role in padding the country’s overall medal total, underscoring the breadth of the contingent’s success across multiple disciplines rather than reliance on a single sport.
The Glasgow 2026 Games themselves drew athletes from more than 74 nations and territories, competing across 10 sports and 215 events for a combined 1,168 medals. Organisers reported that more than 630,000 spectators attended events and festival activities over the 11-day competition, supported by over 4,000 volunteers who logged more than 156,000 hours of service, while the Games generated nearly half a billion views across social media platforms.
