More Champions Emerge as Maltina School Games End Today
More champions are expected to emerge today as the National Finals of the Maltina School Games is set to be concluded at the Sports Complex of the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.
As predicted, it has been a keenly-contested atmosphere as the best athletes from the various State Finals have been competing amongst themselves; showing so much promise they have what it take to be world beaters.
In the 200m Senior Boys event, Marvellous Chukwukwa of Government Secondary School, Karu lived up to the billing as the fastest pupil from across the state finals as he emerged first with a time of 22.29 sec which is an improvement on his 23.60sec winning time from the Abuja State Finals.
John Benedict also from the Federal Capital and Kalu Benjamin from Lagos settled for the second and third sports respectively
In the 200 Junior Boys category, Mustapha Emmanuel and Lodi Emmanuel from Lagos claimed the first and second positions while Dauda Mubarak from the FCT made it to the podium finishing in third position.
In the female category, Lagos won both the Junior and Senior 200m events.
While Ojo Joy from Ijaiye
Housing Estate Grammar School took the first position with a time of 26.19secc in the senior race, Adeleye Ifeoluwa from Babington Macaulay School dominated the junior race, winning in a time of 27.56secs.
There were also wins for Lagos in the 800m Junior and Senior Girls categories while Hassan Adam and Safulahi Aminu gave Kano State something to cheer as they won the 800m junior and senior boys final.
The Maltina School Games is a new intervention in school sports by the country’s number one family drink from the stable of Nigeria Breweries PLC.
It involves a series of track and field sporting competitions held pan-Nigeria, as an interschool sports competition to grow future sports champions in secondary schools across Nigeria.
According to the organizers, outstanding athletes from the Maltina School Games will get opportunities to represent Nigeria at international competitions across the world and that could mark a big turnaround in becoming world-acclaimed stars in their respective fields.
Over 20 million children have been impacted in this maiden edition of the Maltina School Games which many describe as a new chapter in sports development in Nigeria.