All-Nigeria Athletics Championships:  Yusuf-Olukoju urges home-based athletes to brace for stiff competition 

August 1, 2025 by Our Reporter

A board member of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju, has underlined  the importance of the 2025 All Nigeria Athletics Championships which doubles as the National Trials for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, saying  the championships holding at YabaTech Sports ground in Lagos, is not an  ordinary track meet.

The 1996 Olympic Games bronze medallist explained the  National Trials is the nest where the finest, bold and determined athletes congregate to show and prove their worth on and off the track.

 “This is no ordinary track meet,” the legendary  quarter miller told AFN Media Hub.

“We’ve got a World Record Holder in the house—Tobi Amusan—and a wave of NCAA finalists touching down in Nigeria who are ready to light up the trials.”

She appealed  to athletics lovers across to throng to  the Yaba Sports Complex and support the athletes.

 “Wishing every athlete a fierce, focused, and fearless competition this weekend.”

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Meanwhile,  Yusuf -Olukoju has enjoined  the home- based  track queens and kings who will be gracing the National Trials in a bid to pick their tickets to Tokyo in September to brace for stiff challenges in their respective fields.

She continued:  “How can I talk about Nigerian athletics without saluting the bedrock of our sport—our home-based athletes.

“Step on that track and take on the foreign-based athletes, just like many of us once did when we were young, home-based, and hungry.”

She concluded with chat with a definitive  punch line: Go race. Have fun. Make friends. Make history. Let’s go.”