A total of 916 students from 53 schools are participating in the International School Athletics Championship underway at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The Organiser, Enefiok Ubong, said that the competition would be an annual event that would be included in the Lagos State Sports Commission calendar.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tournament, which started on Tuesday, will end on Saturday.
Ubong, a former athletics Olympian, said that talent was best developed at a young age.
He added that exposing the discovered talents would give them an edge over their counterparts.
“Talent is found at a young age, but a lot of times, they do not have enough exposure.
“By exposing them, competing among their colleagues outside the country won’t be new to them since they already have the experience of competing at school age.
“We decided to start from school sport so that we can get the raw talent to compete at the higher level, competitive level,” he said.
He noted that discovering talents at the grassroots level was yielding positive results towards the development of athletics in the country.
“Our grassroots are doing very well; when we are talking about grassroots we are talking about the local government level and the school level.
“Between the learning age and developmental age – that is a good place to start.
“They need more and more activities, competitions to develop their confidence, develop their courage, expose them.
“That is the best thing to get in order to get future champions,”’ he said.
Adesoye Kehinde, representing Oreyo Secondary School, Ikorodu in the 100m U-17 girls, said that the championship was a good development for her career.
She added that she would do her best to emerge the winner from her category.
Also speaking, Efekpo Vwegba, representing College of Commerce, Warri, Delta in 100m U- 17 boys category, said that participating in the tournament would help him develop himself more.
He noted that though he came first in the first run, he believed he could do better.
He urged the young ones to be determined and not to give up on their dreams.
