President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Tonobock Okowa has promised to grace the maiden South West Athletics Secondary Schools Invitational and Relays billed to hold later this month at the Yaba College of Technology Sports Ground in Yaba, Lagos.
Dr Solomon Alao, the South West Zonal representative on the board of the AFN told newsmen in Lagos that the AFN president has given his words to be in Lagos for the event.
“ The AFN president is delighted that we at the South West zone are giving proper definition to grassroot development as it is not the business of the AFN to do it. The states own the athletes and the six states that make up the South West zone have decided to unearth more talents that will graduate into the elite pool,” Alao said.
The meeting, one of several lined up by the association towards the development of the sport in the zone will have Olatunde Makanju, a professor of Psychology and chairman of Osun state Athletics Association as chairman.
Meanwhile, reigning Nigeria long jump record holder (8.27m) and two-time World championship and one time Olympics finalist, Yusuf Alli has also been named the competition director for the meeting.
Alli who is also a former African, Commonwealth and World Universities Games champion in the horizontal jump will be in charge of the technical organisation of the event.
In a related development, Lawrence Adegbeingbe, the vice chairman of Ondo state Athletics Association has been named a member of the technical committee of the association.
Adegbeingbe, a 200m semi-finalist and member of the gold-winning 4x100m relay team to the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia will also be in the team for the technical organisation of the South West Athletics Secondary Schools Invitational and Relays in a fortnight. (Nation)