Nigeria’s Abduljabar Adama Fails to Make Final in Men’s 50m Freestyle  Swimming

•  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.

The result caps an encouraging outing for the talented swimmer, who arrived in Glasgow with an impressive reputation following his exploits as an African junior record holder.  

His ability to reach the last 16 of one of the Commonwealth Games’ most competitive sprint events underlines his growing stature and offers hope for the future of Nigerian swimming.

The outing in the swimming event  was a lull on the impressive performance by Team Nigeria’s para powerlifters on the opening day of the Glasgow 2026 when the kicked off with three silver gold and three medals.

Team Nigeria will continue search for more medals when the weightlifting event kicks off this morning with two Nigerian lifters, Ruth Asuquo Nyong and Favour Omonigho Agboro in action in the women’s 48kg and men’s 65kg categories respectively.

Gold medalist from Birmingham 2022, Rafiatu Lawal will not be in action until Monday morning alongwith Edidiong Joseph Umoafia (71kg) and Onome Omolola Didih in the 53kg categories respectively.