500 athletes for 2nd MoC Grand Prix in Lagos

Over 500 athletes are expected to participate in the 2nd edition of Making of Champions (MoC) Grand Prix, which begins today at the Yabatech Sports Complex in Lagos. It will end tomorrow.

The MoC Grand Prix has become an annual flagship competition in Nigeria, and it’s becoming one of the most important fixtures in the Athletics calendar in country. With the exception of the National Trials, the MoC Grand Prix is already the largest gathering of Athletes nationwide, with 400 registering last year, and over 500 Athletes from across Nigeria. One athlete from Benin Republic has been confirmed for this year’s edition. Qualification tickets for the Olympic Games, IAAF World Championships and African Games will all be up for grabs, according to the organisers.
 
MoC is partnering with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to ensure all races are electronically timed, and all results at the event are ratified and recognized globally by IAAF, the governing body for World Athletics.

“For the first time ever, we have set up a free Physiotherapy drop-in clinic for Athletes attending, from our in-house team led by our UK-trained Physiotherapist, MoC Chief Executive Officer, Bombo Akani said in a message to The Guardian yesterday.
 
According to him, a total of 28 track & field events will be featured at the 2nd MoC Grand Prix, with the women’s 100m, men’s 100m & 200m, men’s 400m and the women’s 400m among the most anticipated events. They will feature some of Nigeria’s top athletes who have big chances of hitting international qualifying standards at the competition.

Over ₦700,000 prize money will be won at the 2nd MoC Grand Prix, “but this wasn’t the case just a couple of weeks ago,’ Akani stated. Speaking further, Akani said: “The overwhelming support the competition has received from Nigeria’s ex-international athletes really does restore your faith that Nigeria as an athletics nation can come together to improve the lot of athletes who have so much potential to become relevant on the global stage.  
 
“One only has to consider the likes of Divine Oduduru, who announced yesterday that he is going professional, to understand Nigeria’s great potential. He moved to the US for College just three years ago and today is in the top three in the world in both 100m and 200m, and globally considered a serious medal contender at the World Championships (this year) and Olympic Games (next year) in both events.”