Future Olympian Athletics Classic rescheduled to last quarter of 2026
By Uzor Odigbo
The Future Olympian Athletics Classic, originally planned for the first quarter of 2026, has been postponed to the last quarter of the year. The delay aims to transform the event into a truly national competition, incorporating talents from all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria rather than limiting it to select regions.
In a statement, Dr. Bruce Ijirigho—a renowned quarter-miler and Team Nigeria’s captain for the boycotted 1976 Montreal Olympic Games—explained that the postponement will allow the Organising Committee to develop a comprehensive national plan. This will ensure the discovery and nurturing of talents across the country, positioning them to become world-class athletes.
The competition is organised by the Youth Sports Renaissance Foundation (YSRF), a non-profit registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) by Bruce Ijirigho, Godwin Obasogie, and Charlton Ehizuelen. The foundation is dedicated to reviving sports—particularly athletics—in secondary schools nationwide.
As Project Lead, Ijirigho emphasised that the Future Olympian Athletics Classic is not about reinventing the wheel but restoring a proven development model. In his era, early discovery in secondary school, combined with proper coaching, academic support, and sports scholarships, produced national, continental, and global champions.
“The bane of sports in Nigeria and many African countries is that our youth don’t get opportunities early enough and lack modern, age-appropriate coaching techniques to accelerate their development,” Ijirigho said.
“The Future Olympian Athletics Classic will discover talents in their early teens, include international coaching clinics to upskill games masters and coaches, and nurture them to become Olympians and world beaters by their late teens or early twenties. That’s why the programme is strictly for secondary school students—it’s a developmental initiative.”
He highlighted the rationale for expanding nationwide: “Talents abound in every nook and cranny of the country. We want to give students from every region equal opportunities to be discovered. Many great middle- and long-distance runners, sprinters, quarter-milers, jumpers, hurdlers, and other athletes have gone unnoticed or been identified too late. With this postponement, we will widen the tent and provide fair access to all our youth.”
Ijirigho remains optimistic about Nigeria’s potential: “We have what it takes to dominate world athletics. All we need is the right development programme—and that’s exactly what the Future Olympian Athletics Classic will deliver for our youth and the country when it launches in the last quarter of 2026.”
