One of Nigeria’s fastest men ever, Deji Aliu, is teaming up with Making of Champions in our quest to find Nigeria’s next generation of future Olympians who will take the world by storm in the coming years. This will be achieved through the pilot of a brand new Reality TV Talent Search, Top Sprinter Genesis, an MoC initiative set to launch in March 2015!
Top Sprinter is a Reality TV show designed to unearth Nigeria’s raw talent in Sprinting and train them up IN Nigeria to become world class athletes. Ultimately, the goal is to birth a group of home-grown superstars that can win medals for Nigeria at the biggest stage of all – the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games! For 2015/16, the Top 12 Athletes discovered in the pilot, Top Sprinter Genesis, will join MoC’s upcoming Track Club, and will be sponsored by MoC to train FULL-TIME for at least ONE YEAR, and longer if they prove their mettle as future world beaters!
Deji Aliu’s partnership with MoC brings the much needed technical knowhow to our plans to launch Top Sprinter and the MoC Track Club – when we first met him during last year’s Ibile Games, we profiled his Akhigbe Track Club, which he launched in January 2014 and has been running since, despite the lack of sponsors or funding. Aliu, one of only eight men in Nigeria’s history to have run the 100 metres in less than 10 seconds, believes that the country has the potential of producing more world beaters in Track and Field if the right systems are put in place.
He told MoC, “We have a lot of sub-10 runners out there who just need to be discovered. However a proper system has to be put in place if these athletes are to reach their potential.
“I and a host of other athletes like Francis Obikwelu, Mercy Nku and Endurance Ojokolo rose through the ranks from our junior days, and we each spent close to a decade representing Nigeria, because we were products of a system. More age-grade competitions and the right incentives have to be put in place if we are to produce athletes who will dominate the world stage as it was in times past.”
Aliu is also the National Record holder in the 60m (6.48s), but he achieved his breakthrough in athletics when he emerged as the 100m World Junior Champion, and 200m Silver medallist at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Portugal in 1994. He went on to represent Nigeria at the highest level, culminating in the fantastic 4x100m Olympic Bronze at Athens 2004, alongside Olusoji Fasuba, Uchenna Emedolu and Aaron Egbele. Along with the 4x400m team from Athens, they are the last male athletes to have won a medal of ANY COLOUR for Nigeria at the Olympics!
Making of Champions is therefore calling ALL aspiring athletes between the ages of 16 and 25, male and female, anyone with the dream to represent Nigeria at either of the next two Olympics, to register for the game-changing Top Sprinter Genesis without delay! Even if you are not currently participating in Athletics – do you think you have the talent? So you think you are fast? Come and show us and we could Make you a CHAMPION!
There will be closed pre-screening “auditions” for Top Sprinter Genesis throughout February, but only for registered participants! To register for Top Sprinter Genesis, please email [email protected] with the following details, and we will then extend invitations for the closed “auditions”:
(1) Full Name
(2) Date of Birth
(3) Gender (M or F)
(4) Phone Number
(5) Location (City, State)
(6) Events of Interest (e.g. 100m, 200m, 400m, etc)
Watch out in February for more details of the Reality TV Pilot, Top Sprinter Genesis, including the dates for the Trials in March, a 3-week Bootcamp and the FINALS, which will decide the Top 12 Athletes to join MoC’s Track Club for an initial ONE YEAR, and maybe more!
The identities of our other celebrity coaches, who will join Deji Aliu on our ‘panel of judges’ for Top Sprinter Genesis, will soon be revealed too – watch this space!
