Consider, Adegoke, Okon George top list of 89 athletes confirmed for MTN CHAMPS/AFN African Games Trials

Emmanuel Ekanem Consider, the world leader in the 100m, Enoch Adegoke, the 2020 Olympics 100m finalist and veteran quartermiler, Patience Okon George will
headline the MTN CHAMPS/AFN National Trials scheduled to start on Friday at the Stephen Keshi stadium in Asaba, Delta state.

Also listed among 89 athletes so far confirmed for the event that will be used to select Nigeria’s track and field to next month African Games are
Commonwealth Youth Games 100m silver medalist, Justina Tiana Eyakpobeyan, reigning Nigerian queen of the track, Blessing Ogundiran, African U20 silver
mdalist, Musibau Adebisi and Sikiru Adeyemi, the veretan 400m runer.

According to an official statement from Making of Champions, organizer of the event, hotel accommodation of the 89 athletes registered for the competition
will be sponsored by MTN, following their partnership with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).

The hotel sponsorship in Asaba for the athletes will be for a maximum of 4 days for the duration of each athlete’s event(s), starting from Friday 16th to
Tuesday 20th, to cover the first 3 days of the 5-day event, which is when the Senior Trials is taking place.

Meanwhile, the Trials will offer Consider, who ran a world leading 10.10 seconds last month at the Dynamic Athletics Meeting 2024, the chance to prove his
performnace at the Navy Sports Ground in Ojo, Lagos was not by happenstance.

It will also offer Adegoke, the 23 year old who shook the Nigerian athletics scene in 2021, leading to his winning the Nigerian Championships in a home-based
record setting 10.00 seconds before making history as the first Nigerian man to qualify for and run in the final of the 100m event at the Olympics 25 years
after Davidson Ezinwa last did an opportunity to relaunch his bid for a return to the Olympic stage.

Adegoke ran a personal 10.28 season’s best last month in Lagos and will be keen to improve on that.

For the women, Justina Tiana Eyakpobeyan will be keen to upstage her senior colleague, Ogundiran who ran 11.50 to win her first Nigerian Championship 100m
title.

Eyakpobeyan ran 11.29 lifetime best to win a silver medal in the 100m event at the Commonwealth Youth Games last year and will be keen to not only make the
team to Ghana but also prove that the young has grown.

Veteran quartermiler Okon George is set to make her season’s debut after ending 2023 with 51.92, the third fastest time by a Nigerian over the distance last
year.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, the owner of the competition is yet to come out with selection criteria for the African Games as many of the
athletes tipped to make the team are abroad, especially the United States of America.

It is also not yet clear what the status of such elite super stars as Tobi Amusan, Ruth Usoro and Ese Brume are as they are likely going to also participate
in the World Indoor Championships which will come up in Glasgow, Scotland, some two weeks before the rack and field event of the games starts in Accra.