Arena Athletics Academy Gets AFN License

-Set to organize national Triangular Athletics Meet in three states

By Daniels Ekugo

Arena Athletics Academy has announced that it would host a Triangular Athletics Meet in June, 2019 following the recent meet hosting licence granted it by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria to organize national track and field competitions iacross the country for the season.

This is the first time a private body will be organising a sanctioned national Triangular Meet since the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) announced a policy shift that gradually sees its functions change from organising competitions to maintaining oversight functions on track and field in the country. As part of the shift, licenses were awarded to a number of organisations to organize competitions in the country.

Chief Executive Officer of ArenaAthleticsAcademy, Mr. Iyere Eyieyien, said “The month long triangular meet which will take place over three weekends with 2 weeks intervals at the University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro and Yaba College of Technology (YabaTech), Lagos is in line with our mission to re-invigorate athletics in Nigeria.

We want to provide a platform that ensures that our athletes compete and hit their peak at the right time to excel both in national and international competitions and at the same time rewarding them handsomely for their efforts”

Technical Director, Arena Athletics Academy, Mr. Oluyomi Sule, said, “The recent downward slide in performance at the global stage can be traced to lack of adequate competitions for the home based athletes unlike their foreign based counterparts. Since they say the best form of training is competitions, we put plans in place to stage the best national track and field competition ever seen on Nigeria soil.”

Mr. Sule disclosed that the Triangular Meet will serve to prepare the home based athletes for the world athletics championship and all African games trials, create opportunities for the home based athletes to achieve their various set standards for the world Athletics Championship and also give opportunity to athletes who are in wrong events to try out new ones with same energy system rather than waste away on mediocre performance.

Mr. Sule invited the organized private sector to collaborate with Arena Athletics Academy and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria in ushering in a golden era for athletics in the country. Arena Athletics Academy was inaugurated three years ago with a mission to revitalize Nigerian athletics in two major areas of training and development.