The MoC of the MTN CHAMPS has appealed to athletes to shun age cheating by using their real ages at the MTNCHAMPS Final and in the future.
MTN has provided a historic opportunity for Nigeria to finally tackle the pressures that our Athletes have long faced cutting their ages.
Never in Nigeria’s history has there been a nationwide championship series that has provided three age groups cutting across ages 11-19, to allow everyone to compete fairly in their age groups.
MTN CHAMPS Final: Using Age Groups To Tackle Age Falsification
Although appropriate age groups have been provided for everyone, we have still seen
widespread age discrepancies across all three age categories – Cadet (U14) and Youth (U17)
categories which were strictly for Secondary Schools only, and Juniors (U20) which were open to all
other teenagers.
“For example, we have seen a systematic pattern of an unusually high number of SS2 and SS3
students claiming to be 13 and 14 years old respectively.
We have seen Athletes who were 14 in 2021 claiming to still be 14 now, 18-year-olds who have finished secondary school already claiming to be 13 so that they can run against the Cadets, and we have seen many Athletes competing for schools they are not part of and in the wrong age categories as well. One such school was the biggest offender in this area is currently in the process of being disqualified, which will be
announced shortly.”
MTN CHAMPS is sponsoring 30 Athletes – Most Valuable Performers (MVPs) and Golden Performers;
– from the Benin, Uyo, and Ibadan legs of the competition to the Grand Final in Abuja.
“We are still in the process of finalizing the Top 10 from each location to be sponsored to Abuja, and we need the
urgent help and support of all the shortlisted Athletes to ensure that we can help make their dreams
come true.”
The Chosen 30
Over the past month, MoC has paid courtesy visits to over 70 shortlisted Athletes, the very best who
competed at each MTN CHAMPS event so far, across over 10 States nationwide.
The visit is to get to know them and select the final 30 overall who will be sponsored to Abuja as Team MVP for the MTN CHAMPS Grand Final, where the Top 20 Athletes for the inaugural MTN CHAMPS season will be
shortlisted for the MoC Athletics Academy. This will see 10 of them joining in 2024, courtesy of
MTN, the Lead Sponsor.
In a very first for School Athletics in Nigeria, the MTN Champs Grand Final in Abuja is going to be
broadcast live by SuperSport, and this means that the stakes have never been higher.
“As a nation, we have an incredible opportunity to begin an exciting new journey of transforming our image in
Athletics and Sports in general, but to do that we must protect our children, especially at such young
ages, from making the errors of misrepresenting themselves on live TV in front of the country, Africa
and the world.
We are appealing to Schools, Parents, and Coaches to ensure that their wards are all using their real
ages to compete so they don’t have to lie about such for the rest of their lives. Thanks to MTN, there
is now a competition for every age group, so there is no longer any need for Athletes to be
untruthful about their ages to get a fair chance to compete and be successful in the sport.”
The First 70 Top Talents
As such, the 70 shortlisted Athletes have all already been contacted to be considered for the
final 30 to be sponsored to the Grand Final and the final 10 to join MoC Athletics Academy in 2024
must all, by no later than Wednesday 22nd November (the initial registration deadline for Abuja),
send MoC the documentation that we have already requested from each of them to complete our
background verification process.
For any Athletes from the Top 70 who are ultimately not selected for the Top 30 to Abuja, please
train hard and come back next year, and you could even possibly make the Top 10 for the Academy
then! Please also don’t be dismayed if you are left out despite initially being named an MVP, Golden
Performer or Medallist at any of the MTN CHAMPS Competitions – while we are NOT accusing
anyone of cheating, as a precaution, we would leave out any Athlete who isn’t able to sufficiently
satisfy the requirements of the background verification process which we have communicated to
each of you.
Age falsification denies high-potential young athletes the chance of being noticed and nurtured at
the right time and inevitably creates a cycle and culture where it seems normal and necessary
to do the same thing as soon as they have the chance to, even though it should be neither. We
have an incredible opportunity to start breaking this cycle now, and we hope all Athletes, Schools and Parents take heed ahead of the Grand Final in Abuja from 1st to 3rd December. All the best to
the participating athletes!
