More than 2000 students drawn from 180 registered public and private schools are expected to vie for honours in the third edition of the annual athletics event ‘Lagelu Inter-Secondary Relay Race’, sponsored by Oyo State Government and scheduled for 16th to18th October, 2019.
The competition was designed by an Ibadan based private radio station (Lagelu 96.7 FM) in collaboration with the federal and Oyo State Ministries Of Youths And Sports to open a new vista of opportunities to young athletes with great potentials in sprints, as a way of stimulating the supply chain of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
The General manager, News of the radio station, Tunde Olawuwo in a briefing held in preparatory to the event disclosed to newsmen that the initiative is now yielding positive results, adding “but to better harness the full potentials of the project, only kids under 15 years are allowed to participate”.
He, however, expressed the satisfaction of the founder of the Radio Station, High Chief Adebayo Akande seeing the initiative yielding immediate results, judging from the bulk of athletes that represented and won medals for Oyo State for the first time in athletics at the recently held National Youths Games being products of Lagelu Inter-Secondary Schools Relay Race.
Olawuwo added that the organizers have provided transportation at various strategic locations in Ibadan to boost attendance and to ease the perceived movement hitch from different destinations to the sports stadium of the University of Ibadan, the venue of the event.
Also speaking during the press briefing, one of the major sponsors of the event, Amb. Romoke Ayinde, a principal partner to Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports and the CEO of Kayrom Lee Gym and Fitness Centre described the project as worthy initiative to boost grassroots sports development, while pledging the continued support of the athletic competition.
As the itinerary stipulates, five major events that were listed for competitions are as follows: 4×100 (male/female), 4×200 (male/female), 4×400 (male/female), mixed and medley races.
Packaged by Olanrewaju Agiri
