Athletes set for MTN Champs season 2 in Ibadan

Season 2 of the MTN Champs Competition is set to kick off today in Ibadan, the Oyo State Capital, with nearly 3,000 athletes expected to compete at the event.

Founder of the Making of Champions, Bambo Akanni, revealed this on Thursday at a press conference in Ibadan.

Akanni lauded the Oyo State government and MTN Nigeria for support towards the commencement of the programme.

“MTN Champs has been successful as a result of support from MTN and the Oyo State government. Ibadan is the first location where we are repeating the event.

“We had 2,000 athletes last year and we will be having 2,600 this year. For the first time ever, we are using two locations at the same time, the Lekan Salami Stadium and the University of Ibadan Sports Complex.

“This is a testament to Oyo state’s investment in sports, having two amazing facilities to host the competition,” he said.

On his part, General Manager, Segment and Devices, MTN Nigeria, Idowu Adesokan, said, “Sports is a very important sector as it brings people together. We all know that football is the leading sport, but athletics has taken its fair share.

“Over the years, we have seen a lot of Nigerian athletes making us proud in athletics. Even at the just-concluded African Games, we saw that a lot of Nigerian athletes performed well as Nigeria finished second overall on the medals table and first in athletics.

“Nigeria has always been at the forefront of athletics in Africa. We know that athletics has its fair share of challenges, and MTN Nigeria is here to solve one of such challenges, which is identifying and harnessing talents at a young age from secondary school and creating a better future for them.

“We are looking at athletes that will represent us at the Olympics in future,” he said.

Meanwhile, Oyo State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Wasilat Adegoke, also commended the commitment of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc to the socioeconomic emancipation of the state youth through the intervention programme tagged: ‘the Making of Champions (MOC)’.

“This programme no doubt will bring opportunities to the young Oyo State children who would naturally not have gotten the access or capacity to be trained or discovered without this kind of platform being presented by MTN.

“Sport as we know has become a catalyst in the revolution of the economy of any nation. It is no longer seen as a pastime or subject of mere recreation and Oyo State in this direction is taking the bull by the horns. This is evident in the upgrading of the iconic Lekan Salami Sports Complex, which has suffered neglect for 44 years to a world facility.

“The state is looking forward to having MTN stage this athletics tournament which comprises junior, youth, cadet and senior categories on an annual basis and leaving a legacy by doing so, as the purpose of living is leaving a legacy,” Adegoke said.