Nigeria, Ghana, Togo target Budapest 2023 relay tickets

As the finale of the Deji Tinubu/Lagos Athletics Club Series takes centre stage today at the Yaba College of Technology , relay teams from Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Benin Republic will be slugging it out for tickets to next month’s Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships.

The DT/Lagos Athletics Club Series is an initiative of the Lagos State Athletics Association (LSAA) with the aim of reviving healthy competitions among the athletes across the country as 27 clubs and three schools will be aiming to share from the grand prize.

According to the technical director of LSAA, Enefiok Udo-Obong, the one-day meet promises to be exciting as the relay events – 4X100m and 4x400m will be the main highlight as teams are jostling for tickets with the required qualifying time.

“I can confirm that after the success of three legs in February, April and June, we are set for the grand finale which also provides an opportunity for teams to secure the qualifying time for the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary,” Udo-Obong said. “We will have teams from Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic and Nigeria.

“Some of our best athletes in sprint and relays will also be present to compete.

“ I’m looking forward to new records and excellent performance from the athletes,” he added.

For the chairman of LSAA, Solomon Alao, the staging of the tournament was aimed at restoring the glorious era of athletics.

He said: “The Lagos Athletics Association is always on the lookout for innovative ideas to catalyse development and support growth. We identified that in all of the years of athletics sport or sports in general, the one singular component of the community of systems that has remained constant over the years is the athletics club.

“The club system has been able to sustain athletics activity homogeneously in Nigeria with little or no support from government as such, we decided to leverage on this fascinating phenomenon to encourage further growth and see how to maximise its potential,” Alao added.