Over N8m will be up for grab at the maiden Lagos Athletics Relays Championship scheduled for Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
The tournament is part of the Lagos International Sports Classics, which has hosted and still hosting tournaments in table tennis, badminton, taekwondo, swimming, golf among others.
For the Relay tournament, nine events will be competed for in the junior and senior categories with over 43 schools already confirmed for the junior division while 18 clubs have also been listed in the senior cadre.
According to the chairman, Lagos State Athletics Association, Olatunde Makanju, the tournament is meant to help popularize the sport among students as well as ignite interest of people in athletics.
He said: “We want to use this championship to popularize athletics in schools because it seems the sport is going down in schools and also to assemble the best across the globe in Lagos so that through this, the young athletes can develop more interest in the sport.
“For us in Lagos, we are always setting the pace and we hope that this maiden edition will be a springboard for the sport to win more disciples and have more young people competing in athletics,”.
The junior category is open to all secondary schools in Lagos as they compete in 4x100metre, 4x200m, 100 as well as Swedish relays in 100, 200, 300 and 400M.
The top three athletes in each event will go home with N50, 000, N30, 000 and N20, 000 respectively.
The senior division is open to States, clubs, tertiary institutions, military, para military organizations and foreign countries.
The events in the senior category are 4×100, 4×200, and 4×400, sprint medley like 100, 200, 400 and 800metres.
The top three athletes in the senior cadre will cart home N120, 000, N80, 000 and N50, 000 respectively.
