Thursday, 20 May 2021: All roads will lead to the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State, on Saturday, May 22nd, for the inaugural edition of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, (AFN)/ Making of Champions (MoC) invitational, which will feature a total of 312 athletes competing across 16 Track & Field events at the one-day meeting.

While speaking with members of the press at an online media parley on Wednesday to herald the event, MoC Founder/CEO Bambo Akani disclosed that all is now set for the one-day event which has been put in place to provide a platform for athletes hoping to qualify for the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics and World U20 Championships.

He said, “The AFN/MoC Invitational is an inaugural event that we’ve launched to help Athletes in Nigeria and across Africa to have more opportunities to qualify for international competitions such as the Olympics and World U20 Championships and we’re very happy to put this event on. As you all know we’ve been doing the MoC Grand Prix for about three years now. We had the third edition in March where Athletes qualified for the Olympics and the World U20 Championships.

“It’s been a very tough couple of years for sports, especially with COVID, and with the world coming out of that and making a final push towards the Olympics, we felt that there was need for more competitions in Nigeria. We are aware that some athletes are abroad for the US Tour for Nigeria, but we thought that the bulk of the athletes at home who still have prospects and opportunities to qualify for the Olympics and World U20 Championships could do so. So that’s the purpose of this event.”

Although majority of the athletes will be storming Lagos from across Nigeria, athletes from up to 10 countries have also registered their intention to attend the competition, including Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, Togo, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Senegal, and Uganda.

The Track events to be featured are the Men’s and Women’s 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 100/110m Hurdles and 400m Hurdles, while the Field events include the Women’s Long Jump, Men’s Triple Jump and Women’s Shot Put.