Athletes Clamor For Prize Money In All Comers

Majority of the athletes that participated at the first edition of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All Comers Championships in Shagamu, Ogun state over the weekend has called for little incentives which they described will encourage them to give their best.

The two days championship witnessed a large turnout with over 2000 athletes participating despite being without prize money, but the Athletes have urged the AFN to help with little incentives such as transportation fare as most of them are scattered across the country with some living in remote villages.

Some of the athletes who spoke with SportsDay and who don’t want their names in print said that though the championship is a good idea and a way of catching them young, since the national sports festival has been put on hold, it would have been good if there was money attached to it.

“I want to really commend the federation for coming up with this initiative of organizing this championship, it is a good idea but we all know that Nigeria athletes are suffering.  Infact there is no home base sport person that is having it rosy right now, so not attaching prize money to this event is not too good,” started one of the Delta State athlete.

Another athlete from Delta state said the program is good, he said at first he was not too happy to hear that they will be running for free but that he later soft peddle when he saw the name of the AFN President on the vest worn by the athletes which shows that there was no sponsorship money for the championship. 

“At first I was not too happy when I heard that we will be running for free in the three editions of the All Comers Championships, but I later cool down when I saw that the vest we will be wearing for the championship carries the name of the AFN president, that alone shows that there was no sponsors for this tournament.”

It would be recalled that the first of the three- legs All Comers Championship was held at the Shagamu February 18 and 19, while the Lagos leg will hold March 4^th and 5^th at YABATECH, while the last leg will hold at Ijebu –ode from March 18 and 19^th.