Twenty-two athletes from the Making of Champions (MoC) Track Club will feature at the AFN All-Comers Competition on Saturday at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in Ondo State.
Bimbo Akani, the Founder/CEO of MoC, disclosed on Friday that this was the highest number of MoC athletes to feature at a single competition.
“The number surpasses the former record of 17 athletes who competed at the 2019 AFN All-Comers in Ijebu-Ode.
“I am pleased to see that our athletes are starting the season with a record attendance at the AFN All-Comers in Akure,’’ he said.
Akani noted that getting 22 athletes to participate in the competition was no mean feat, especially at this time.
“It has not been easy keeping the club going and keeping athletes well-funded and supported,” he added.
Akani pointed out that, for most MoC athletes, the championship would be their first national outing in almost a year after the 2020 season which was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
He, however, listed some of their athletes who were active in 2020 to include Joy Udo-Gabriel, Jerry Jakpa and Emmanuel Ojeli who competed in one international game in 2020.
They were at the Kip Keino Classic at Nairobi in Kenya in September, with Udo-Gabriel and Jakpa competing in the 200m and Ojeli in the 400m.
At the event, Ojeli stormed to second place in a Season Best (SB) of 46.49secs, while Jakpa returned a time of 20.71secs to place fourth and Udo-Gabriel also finished fourth with her SB of 24.22secs.
Akani added that the MoC trio and national 100m/200m champion Usheoritse Itsekiri were the only Nigerians in action in Kenya.
“So, leading the MoC athletes to Akure is African Championships’ 100m bronze medallist Udo-Gabriel, whose last national competition was at the Okowa COVID-19 Resumption Meet in Asaba in November where she finished second in the women’s 100m final.
“MoC Track Club’s special athlete Ifeanyi Christian, who won gold medals in 100m, 200m and 400m events of the T46 category at the Para Athletics Grand Prix in Tunisia 2019, will once again test his mettle against his able-bodied counterparts in Akure,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the AFN All-Comers is being organised by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).(NAN)
