The much-anticipated 4th Lagelu FM Inter-Secondary Schools’ Relay Race is scheduled to come up on the 18th of November according to the General Manager of the radio station, Tunde Olawuwo.
The competition was designed by an Ibadan based private and fastest growing indigenous radio station, Lagelu 96.7 FM in collaboration with the Federal and Oyo State Ministries Of Youths And Sports to discover new talents in sprints to be nurtured into stars for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
Speaking at the press conference ahead of the annual event, Olawuwo disclosed to newsmen that because of the global pandemic of COVID-19 which stopped the event last year, this year’s event would have been the 5th edition.
Speaking further, Olawuwo said the screening of participants will come up on the 16th of November and instead of the three days usually used for the programme, a day will be used this year and again another difference in this year’s event is that 4x400m will not be included but only 4x100m and 4x200m will take place.
“This year’s race will accommodate forty five private and public secondary schools and only 4x100m and 4x200m race will be allowed and only kids under 15 years will be allowed to participate,” Olawuwo said.
Also speaking at the event, the South West Zonal Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Femi Ajao advised the participating schools and their games masters to shun the practice of winning by all means by including over aged athletes because this will lead to the disqualification of the school involved.
“The point of the whole exercise is to discover hidden talents that will be useful to the state or what do you think will happened if a 25 year old person was presented as 14 year old? Is there any developmental programme for him that can make him to be world champion in the future?
“We must learn to present kids with a true age for all age range event because by so doing, their potentials will be discovered,” he added.
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, revealed that most of the land space allocated for children playing ground has been used by greedy developers thus no space for children to recreate and develop their potentials.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
