The battle for medals commenced on the Umuahia Stadium on Friday as about 1,500 younger athletes from Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and host state Abia started competing within the CLIMM South-East Beneath-16 Monitor and Area Championship.
The occasions embody the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m, relays, javelin, discus, lengthy soar, triple soar, and shot put.
The athletics championship, designed to find new uncooked abilities from the South-East, additionally goals to arrange future worldwide athletes for Nigeria.
Talking on the flag-off ceremony, Lee Okoroafo, who represented the 5 former Nigerian athletes sponsoring the occasion, lamented that though the South-East dominated athletics for Nigeria within the Eighties and Nineties, the area is now “nowhere to be discovered.”
Okoroafo defined that his organisation, CLIMM, is dedicated to elevating new stars in varied athletic disciplines, including that the initiative additionally serves to discourage South-East youths from participating in crime and different deviant actions.
He additional famous that a number of uncooked abilities found in earlier editions at the moment are competing for Nigerian and worldwide athletic organisations. He expressed gratitude to Governor Alex Otti for internet hosting the championship.
Earlier, the Abia State Director of Sports activities, Obioma George, challenged the younger athletes from the South-East to grab the chance of the championship to turn into future sporting legends.
He additionally recommended Governor Alex Otti for making Abia “the brand new residence of sports activities competitions.”
