Awoture Eleyae’s U-15/Open championship to serve as trial for Delta athletes ahead of African Games

• Gets new date
A new date has been fixed for the 2019 Dr. Awoture Eleyae U-15/Open Athletics Championship holding in Ozoro, in the Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State.

Organisers of the event said yesterday that the competition, which is in its seventh edition will hold on June 20 and 22, instead of the June 19 and 20 earlier published.

Over 400 young athletes from 25 local government areas of Delta State are expected to storm Ozoro for the competition.

The Dr. Awoture Eleyae Athletics Championship has produced notable athletes for Nigeria since its inception, including Commonwealth gold medalist in the long jump, Ese Brume in 2013, sprinter Divine Oduduru in 2014 and quartermiler, Praise Idamadudu in 2015. Oduduru made history recently by winning his first NCAA 100m title, clocking 9.86 seconds to become second African runner to achieve this feat. His 9.86 second was the second-fastest time in NCAA history.

Other athletes who are products of the Dr. Awoture Eleyae Athletics Championships includes Usheoritse Itsekiri, who just secured qualification for Doha 2019 World Championship, blazing to a Personal Best of 10.07 seconds to win the men’s 100m at the 55th International Whitsum Festival in Rehilingen, as well as Raymond Ekevwo, who broke his Personal Best record in the 100m with a big Lifetime Best of 10.02s to finish second in the men’s 100m final at the 2019 South Eastern Conference (SEC) Championships in USA on May 11.

Ekevwo is among the three Nigerian male sprinters alongside Oduduru and Itsekiri to qualify for the World Championships in Doha.

Former president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Solomon Ogba revealed yesterday that Delta State would use the Dr. Awoture Eleyae Athletics Championships as selection of athletes before hitting Abuja for the African Games national trail between June 25 and 27.

Former Director of Sports in Delta State, Seigha Porbeni said all technical arrangement for the competition had been put in place.

The competition is in honour of Dr. Eleyae, a former secretary general of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa, for his contributions to the nation’s athletics.

Eleyae is called the doyen of Nigerian sports for his production of various stars, including Sam Igun, David Ejoke, A.K Amun, Emilia Edet, Violet Odogwu-Nwajei and the high-flying Modupe Oshikoya.