AFN officials ‘sweat’ over record entry at Olympics trials in Benin City

Athletes

Officials of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) laboured for several hours, yesterday, to fix a large pool of foreign and home-based athletes, who turned up for the ongoing 2024 National Trials holding in Benin, Edo State.

The AFN is using the trials to pick the country’s representatives at both the African Senior Championships in Douala, Cameroon and the Paris Olympics.

The National Trials, which started at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, has a record 11 male sprinters, who have fast times in the 100m this season, vying for spots in the squads to the African Championships and the Olympic Games.

The 100m final, which was decided yesterday evening, featured Favour Ashe, who holds the national lead with 9.94 seconds at the NCAA and Godson Brume, who has a Season’s Best (SB) of 9.99s.

AFN Secretary General, Rita Mosindi, told The Guardian that over 1,000 athletes turned up for the national trials, including about 60 foreign-based stars.

“This is the first time we are having this large turnout of athletes in the history of the national trials,” Mosindi said. “We also have so many young athletes, who came from the United States for the first time to fight for a ticket to be in the World U-20 championships. It is good for Nigerian athletics,” she stated.

Today, all focus will be on world record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, as she attempts to reclaim her Nigerian title.

The men’s Discuss final will also hold today at 3.00 p.m. The high jump final for women today will give Nigerians an opportunity to watch record-breaker, Temitope Adeshina, in action.

Also on the card today is the men’s 110m hurdles final, as well as the 400m men and women’s shot put finals.