The race for medals began at the Umuahia Stadium on Friday as about 1,500 young athletes from Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and host state Abia took to the track for the CLIMM South-East Under-16 Track and Field Championship.
The tournament features events such as the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m, relays, javelin, discus, long jump, triple jump, and shot put, with participants vying for top honours.
Speaking at the flag-off, Lee Okoroafo, representing the five ex-Nigerian athletes sponsoring the competition, lamented the decline of athletics in the South-East, which once dominated the national scene in the 1980s and 1990s.
Okoroafo said CLIMM’s mission is to discover and nurture young talents, while also steering youths away from crime and social vices. He added that several athletes discovered in past editions now compete both locally and internationally.
Also speaking, Abia State Director of Sports, Obioma George, urged the participants to make the most of the opportunity to become future sporting legends, while commending Governor Alex Otti for making Abia “the new home of sports competitions.”
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