The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has stated that athletes from participating states and clubs are expected to arrive the Port Harcourt High Performance Centre on Friday, April 7th for screening ahead of the 7th edition of the D.K Olukoya Youth and Junior Championships holding on April 8th, 2017.
In a statement signed by Olukayode Thomas, AFN’s Head of Media and Communications, only athletes that pass the screening exercise will be allowed to take part in this year’s championships.
He said, “Yes, we are ready for this year’s D.K Olukoya Championships which will be taking place in Port Harcourt. We have again put in place adequate measures to ensure that only athletes that fall between the age bracket can compete,” he said.
A keen contest is expected in Port Harcourt as this edition of the championship will be used to select athletes that will represent Nigeria at the African Junior Championships that will be holding in Algeria from June 29th to July 2nd.
It is understood that the AFN will also be using this year’s D.K Olukoya Championships to aid its selection of athletes to represent the country at the IAAF World Youth Championships and Commonwealth Youth Games taking place in Kenya and the Bahamas respectively.
With so much at stake at this year’s championships, many are keen to see the next generation of athletes that are hopefully going to evolve into world beaters in no distant time.
Screening of athletes for the D.K Olukoya Championships will now hold on Sunday, April 9th as the competition has been rescheduled for April 10th.