1ST ALL NIGERIA RELAYS:

Over 500 Athletes Burn Track

Nigeria’s journey to achieving athletics greatness this year and beyond began over the past weekend, as the first leg of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All Nigeria Relays was held at Dipo Diya Stadium, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

The event, which was earlier scheduled for Gateway Stadium, Sagamu, but had to be shifted because the arena is being used for other purposes by Ogun State government, saw over 500 athletes burning the Ijebu-Ode stadium’s track.

Speaking on his impression of the competition, the coordinator of All Nigeria Relays, Yusuf Ali said the AFN is encourage with the turnout of athletes and advised others to use the federation’s prize money initiative to turn up for subsequent editions, which he say7s will help them better their skills for this year’s season.

“For the first time in the relays, we have prize money and this will motivate the athletes coming and better their time.  They should take advantage of this and better themselves and skills for this year’s IAAF World Athletics Championship coming up in Moscow, Russia in August,” Ali said.

Although most national athletes were missing at the first edition of the relays, some promising results and timing were achieved at the Ijebu Ode venue at the weekend.

These include the 4x200m men, which was won by the Nigeria Civil Defence with a finish time of (1. 26.18 secs), second place was taken by the Nigeria Customs (1.27.05secs) while Civil Defense also took the third position (1.28.53secs).

In the 4x200m women, Margaret Etim and others from Civil Defense won the first poison (1.41.71secs) with Edun Feyisara and others of Splendor (1.51.25sec) and Afusat and others of Falilat athletics club (2.07.92secs) won the second and third place respectively.

In the 4x100m men, Agbowa Emobasa and others from ICDO (41.02secs) take the first position with Nicholas Itoa and others of the Civil Defense (41.25secs) and Ekundayo Sehuboa of the Nigeria Police (42. 62secs) were second and third respectively.

In the women’s 4x100m, International (46. 71secs), Civil Defense (47.47secs) and Kwara (49.47secs) took the first, second and third position respectively.

The second leg of the event is expected to hold at the refurbished Warri City Stadium, Delta State, on March 23, as a dress rehearsal for the fast approaching African Youth Athletics Championships billed to flag off on March 27 at the same venue.