Nigerian athletes at the 2010 Golden League Classics

The Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) is gradually sounding the death knell on attempts by athletes to age-cheat at meets. Wednesday night, the Secretary General of the AFN, Mrs. Maria Wophill made the declaration that is to be seen as the beginning of the end of using age grade tournaments in the sport to age-cheat.

She sensationally declared to all Nigerians: “Athletes representing forces and para-military forces such as the Civil Defence, Customs, Police are no longer going to be allowed to compete in Under-16 and Under-18 championships in this country.
While assuring athletes and officials coming for the junior meets of subsidised stay in Lagos, the AFN scribe insisted that there is no room for athletes competing for paramilitary bodies such as the Police, Customs, Immigration, Civil Defence

“This rule has been made before. We are only using this tournament as the take off point in its enforcement. It is one of the ways in which we hope will stamp out age cheating in our competitions. Henceforth, we want junior competitions to be strictly for juniors.”
The Federation then reconfirmed next week Tuesday and Wednesday, April 5 and 6, for the National Under-16 and Under-18 Athletics Championships that have been scheduled to hold at the Sports Complex of the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. Wophill revealed that letters of the new dates for the junior championships named after Dr. D. K. Olukoya, the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles, have been sent to clubs and participants.

“We are using this medium to call on all athletics clubs, schools and states that sent in entries previously before the shift in dates to reconfirm their participation in order to help with logistics,” said the former handball player.