The battle for supremacy among the 69 secondary schools and 84 junior/senior teams will be ignited when the MTN CHAMPS begins at the New Jos Stadium from Tuesday April 23, to 26.
At the press conference held on Monday, April 22, to herald the commencement of the championships, top dignitaries including Maram Isaac, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education (Secondary); Barrister Rebecca Shaseet, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Sports; Prof. Ezra Gunen, Director of Sports, Plateau State, and Emamoke Ogoro, General Manager, Brand and Communication, MTN were in attendance.
Officials from the Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and Deji Ogeyingbo, Country Manager, Making of Champions (MoC) were at the press briefing.
In his remarks, Prof. Gunen expressed excitement about Jos hosting the northern leg of MTN CHAMPS, which he said is in tandem with the state’s focus.
Commissioner of Youth and Sports, Barrister Shaseet shared the ministry’s plans for youth activities and sports development, while urging MTN to return to the state in the near future.
Isaac, who represented the Commissioner of Education, reiterated the ministry’s support for MTN CHAMPS and looks forward to a fruitful partnership with all the stakeholders involved.
MTN’s Ogoro stated that the goal is to make Nigeria well-known globally in athletics, while affirming that MTN’s foray into athletics is a long-term investment.
Her words: “To be honest, I am really excited about MTN participating in Athletics. I think the very first time I got the call from MoC articulating their vision, I just knew this was going to be a very big sponsorship property. And I tell you, if Nigeria has about 70 percent of its population below the age of 20, this is what to use to actively engage the youth. The vision for MTN is to put Nigeria on the map, right there with the likes of USA and Jamaica. We are determined about making sure that happens, because we have so much talent that is undiscovered.”
AFN’s Mosindi commended MTN and MoC for their efforts, as she was thrilled by the increasing number of venues for each season.
Ogeyingbo however, highlighted how MoC’s work in the past decade has provided the perfect template for MTN CHAMPS, citing the example of Favour Ashe who was discovered at the MoC Athletics Trials in Ughelli less than six years ago and trained by MoC for three years before securing a US Collegiate Scholarship. Ashe is currently the only man globally to have run sub-10 seconds in the 100m so far this year (9.99s and 9.96s), which has already tied him with Davidson Ezinwa and Seun Ogunkoya as the Nigerians with the highest number of sub-10s runs in history (four each).
MTN CHAMPS Jos is coming up right after the successful hosting of the Ibadan leg, which had about 2700 athletes participating. Nearly 1500 athletes have signed up to compete in Jos, while the Grand Final for Season 2 will be held in Calabar from April 30 to May 3.