• Rafiatu Lawal, Ruth Nyong, Edidiong Umoafia, others set for more medals for Nigeria as weightlifting begins
Nigeria’s Abduljabar Adama yesterday missed out on a place in the final of the Men’s 50m Freestyle of the 2026 Commonwealth Games here in Glasgow. He was muscled out of the final by a strong field of world- classed swimmers that dominated the event. Despite falling short of making it to the final of the 50m freestyle, his performance was generally seen as a welcome development for Team Nigeria that has never fielded a swimmer in the semifinal before.
He made history becoming the first Nigerian swimmer to reach the semi-finals, finished sixth in Semifinal 2 with a time of 22.44 secs to end his impressive Commonwealth Games outing in Scotland.
Australia’s Jamie Jack won the race in 21.55 seconds, ahead of Canada’s Joshua Liendo (21.61s) and Australia’s Flynn Southam (21.86s). Singapore’s Mikkel Jun Jie Lee finished fourth in 22.25s, while the Bahamas’ Lamar Taylor placed fifth in 22.30s, just ahead of the Nigerian swimmer.
Before the semis, Adama progressed from the heats earlier in the day to become the only Nigerian swimmer to reach the semi-finals after teammate Clinton Opute exited in the preliminary round.
