Five nations will launch the inaugural MTN CHAMPS Continental Relays as they fight for qualifying marks for the World Relays before the April 7th, 2024 deadline.
The inaugural Continental Relays is expected to be the launch of an annual event that aims to become
Africa’s premier relays, in the mold of the Penn Relays for the schoolkids and World Relays for the
Elites, and is set to accommodate more countries across Africa in the future.
MTN CHAMPS Continental Relays provides countries the opportunity to qualify for the 2024 World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, from the 4th and 5th of May 2024,
The 2024 World Relays will serve as the main qualifying event for the relays at the Paris 2024 Olympics,
and based on World Athletics’ new qualification format for the relays, the Top 14 teams at the World
Relays automatically qualify for the Olympics, leaving just two more spots for the next best teams by the qualification deadline (30th June 2024).
MTN CHAMPS Continental Relay Format
The first edition of the Continental Relays, which is an innovation to Nigeria and Africa, is set to
launch at MTN CHAMPS Ibadan scheduled for 5th to 8th April 2024, at the Lekan Salami Stadium in
Ibadan, Oyo State.
MTN CHAMPS Ibadan will continue to follow the format of CHAMPS, with athletes set to participate across four age groups, namely the Cadet (U-14) and Youth (U-17) for secondary schools only, as well as the Junior (U-20) and newly-added Senior category (no age restrictions) for Season 2.
In the Senior category, MTN CHAMPS in Ibadan will run the inaugural Continental Relays, which will
involve up to 5 African countries including Team Nigeria, as a final qualifying competition for the World
Relays for which the qualification window is ending on 7th April 2024.
As a result, the 6th and 7th of April will include the Continental Relays in the Senior category for these countries and any other Seniors teams such as States, Clubs, Universities, etc.
The Continental Relays will run as the first team competition for the newly added Senior
category of MTN CHAMPS.
Participants and Scoring System
Each of the five countries can register a maximum of 20 athletes to compete across the Olympic relays (men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m, and the mixed 4x40m). Furthermore, each athlete may also compete in their events (up to three each) as they accumulate points for their National Team to become the inaugural champions of the Continental Relays.
The Finalists (Top 8) of each Event will record points as follows – 1st – 10, 2nd – 8, 3rd – 6, 4th – 5, 5th – 4, 6th – 3, 7th – 2, 8th – 1, while in proprietary innovation of the MoC scoring model designed to foster teamwork in winning the MTN CHAMPS Titles, all Relay Finalists (Top 8) will be re double points as follows – 1st – 20, 2nd – 16, 3rd – 12, 4th – 10, 5th – 8, 6th – 6, 7th – 4, 8th – 2.
The National Team with the most points overall to emerge as the MTN CHAMPS Continental Relays Champion.
Window To World Relays Qualification
The Relay events for the Continental Relays will happen on the 6th and 7th of April (in time for the World Relays qualification deadline on the 7th of April) while the Individual events will run from the 6th to 8th of April, with the overall Champions emerging on the final day.
Countries have already signaled their interest in being part of the inaugural Continental Relays, and the first five countries that register their teams, including Nigeria, will have their feeding and
accommodation sponsored at the event in Ibadan, and their logistics covered from their arrival in
Lagos, Nigeria, until their departure.
Meanwhile, the competition will be the first event in Nigeria to be part of the World Athletics Continental Tour and start as a Challenger event.
As such, it will receive the technical input of the Confederation for African Athletics (CAA) in planning the event.
Given that Nigeria is by far the most successful African nation in the Olympic Relays with 8 out of the 14 Track and Field medals won by the nation, the MTN CHAMPS Continental Relays is all set to make Nigeria the Relay capital for Africa.