Favour Ekpekpe

When Making of Champions (MoC) was invited to Government College Ughelli, Delta State in mid-2017 to witness the climax of the Youth Scholar Athletes Development Project (YSADP) that Africare and Shell had been running for the last 3 years, no one had an idea that Favour Ekpekpe, born 1st March 2001, would be joining MoC before the end of the year.

Ekpekpe finished 2nd in the 100m at that competition, and it was clear that he had that raw talent and could go on to become one of the best in Nigeria if properly guided. And so MoC Track Club relocated him from Ughelli to Lagos immediately after the 2017 National Youth Games (NYG) where he competed in both the 100m and 200m, in preparation for the 2018 Athletics season.

His first outing in 2018 was at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Golden League where he competed in the 200m and 400m. In June, he made his debut at the National U-18 Trials in Ozoro where he clocked a Personal Best in the 100m heats and then posted the joint fastest time of the competition in the 200m heats – a PB of 21.97s. Ekpekpe went on to win his first national medal – a Bronze in the Boys’ 200m final in Ozoro.

Having impressed potential sponsors with his performances, Ekpekpe received a Shell scholarship in September 2018. The sponsorship was extended to the 2019 Athletics season, which impacted greatly on his performances.

At the 2019 National U20 Championships in Ilaro, Ekpekpe saved it all for the 200m final. It paid off as he ran a new PB of 21.44s to clinch the title, making him the second athlete at the MoC Track Club to win a National Junior title. This earned him a place in the Nigerian team to the African U20 Championships in Abidjan where he won his heat and eventually made the final, finishing 5th with a then PB of 21.38s.

He went on to better the time to 21.11s at the African Games Open Trials where he placed 3rd in the men’s 200m A Final which was won by teammate Jerry Jakpa.