By; AYO OJEDOKUN, Lagos
As part of it’s efforts to be the dominant state in athletics in the country, Lagos State Athletics Association has concluded arrangement to organise the first leg of this year’s athletics series on February 19, with about 10 million Naira to be won as cash prizes.
The open championship which will be held at Yaba College of Technology according to the Technical Director, Enefiong Udoh during a press conference, will attract over 1,000 athletes from about thirty clubs including athletes from Benin Republic and Togo who have sent in their entries for the championship.
He further disclosed that they decided to make it a club affair because experience has shown that in most cases, only athletes are rewarded and that’s why they want coaches who discover these athletes to be equally recognized and rewarded accordingly.
“We’ve discovered that over the years, clubs develop the athletes and many times the reward goes to the athletes leaving out the coaches. Now we want the clubs and coaches to be recognized and rewarded accordingly,” he said.
He started that the next leg will be in May, while the last leg will be in June, while registration will close on February 15, with all entries to be confirmed on February 18, just as he noted that there will be invitational relays and sprints from some selected secondary schools.
In his own remarks, Chairman of Lagos Athletics Association, Dr. Solomon Alao while commending the achievement of Lagos State athletes at the last National Sports Festival, assured that the event will be a continuous one and that the association will do it’s best to ensure that the athletes get to the top of their career.
He cautioned the athletes to stay off drugs with an appeal to corporate Nigeria to partner with the association to take Lagos athletics to a higher level.
” I want to assure you that we’ll continue to do our best in moving athletics forward in the state. It’s equally important I advise the athletes to keep off performance enhancing drugs as it is capable of ruining their career.
On sponsorship, I appeal that corporate sponsors should partner with us because apart from the prize monies of 10 million, we shall be spending close to 40 to 50 million Naira to put this tournament together,” he said.
Prizes for the winners of each event is N100,000, while the first and second runners-up will get N60,000 and N30,000 respectively.
Highpoint of the press conference was the inauguration of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the tournament and reward to veteran athletics coach, Dele Solomon who got a 40″ Smart television, 18″ standing fan and a Lontor rechargeable lantern with cash.
