S’East sports directors pick venue for Tobias Igwe Memorial Classic today

• Okorie completes athletics office, hostel in Ebonyi

Directors of Sports in the South-East are today picking the venue for the maiden Tobias Igwe Memorial Classic, which is sponsored by United States-based former 400m hurdler, Victor Okorie.

All of them want the Tobias Igwe Memorial Classic to take place in their states, but we have to settle for one venue. Maybe, by next year, it will rotate to another state.”
   
Okorie, a representative of the South-East on the Board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), was one of the most gifted hurdlers discovered and nurtured to stardom by the late Tobias Igwe, in Enugu during the golden era of Nigerian athletics.
 
“Everybody wants to be part of the Classics to show their respect for the late Tobias Igwe for the good work he did for Nigerian athletics,” said Okorie, a silver medallist at COJA 2003 African Games. Okorie also revealed that the athletics office and hostel he constructed for track and field stars in Ebonyi State is ready for use.
 
“I decided to embark on this project as a way of building a formidable athletics foundation for youths of Ebonyi State,” he said. “It is my little way of contributing to youth empowerment not only in Ebonyi State but also the South-East and Nigeria as a country.”
 
Apart from Victor Okorie, the late coach Tobias Igwe, popularly known as Toblow, discovered and nurtured top Nigerian track and field stars like Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, Davidson Ezenwa, Uchenna Emedolu, Clement Chukwu, Raphael Ihunaegbo, Tina Iheagwam and Charity Opara.