Bambo Akani, the Founder, Making of Champions (MoC), says his organisation is hopeful that Nigeria’s athletics team to the 2028 Olympics will be dominated by athletes from the MTN Champs.
Akani told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the just-ended Ibadan leg of the MTN Champs Season 2 that there have been tremendous progress towards achieving this.
NAN reports that MTN Champs is Nigeria’s premier schools athletics championships presently, with the Ibadan leg held over five days kicking off its Season 2 on Friday.
“MTN Champs Season 2 in Ibadan went a step higher with 2,600 athletes in two different locations, compared to the 2,000 athletes we had in Season 1.
“That was an historic moment for athletics in Nigeria, as the event has now remained the single most attended athletics event in Nigeria’s history.
“With this, we are very excited about what is going to happen in athletics in the next four to five years in this country.
“This is because, over the last decade, MoC and its athletes, along with other sponsors and partners, won about 70 national and international medals.
“Right now we have up to 12 of our athletes in the U.S. on full scholarships. We are excited that now that MTN Champs is here, we are expecting 10 times of that success.
“I believe some of the next athletes for Nigeria for the Olympics, especially that of Los Angeles in 2028, will emerge from this MTN Champs Season 2 in Ibadan,”Akani said.
He commended the competition’s sponsors, MTN Nigeria, for making the dreams of the convener, Making of Champions (MoC) possible.
“MoC has been supporting athletes in the past 11 years. But having MTN as sponsors of the MTN Champs since 2023 has brought tremendous improvement to the championship.”
Speaking on performances, the MoC’s Head Coach and Nationwide Meet Director, Deji Aliu, said the championship was an improvement on the successes recorded during Season 1 of the event.
He said the male athletes performed better than the female ones, pointing out that this was a reversal of what happened during Season 1.
Aliu, an Olympics men’s 4×100 metres relay bronze medallist and two-time World Athletics Championships finalist, said the standard, records and performances recorded in the current edition were high and commendable.
He applauded MTN Nigeria for sponsoring MoC to develop talents in Nigeria.
“Other corporate organisations should join hands in providing platforms for upcoming athletes to showcase their talents,” Aliu said.(NAN)
