Editor’s note: This is the second in a four-part series. See the Jamaica Observer’s publication on Tuesday, September 24, 2024 for part three.

BAMBO Akani’s dream to stage a version of Jamaica’s Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) in Nigeria was not realised overnight.

There were things to do before what is now the MTN Champs — sponsored by Africa’s biggest telecoms company — could get off the ground.

Stakeholders started a talent search, which included a televised talent show called Top Sprinter, then opened an academy to train athletes.

The television show was based on the format of the talent show The Voice, he said, and coaches/mentors would vie for athletes. Those athletes would compete, culminating in a grand final.

That process, Akani told the Jamaica Observer, produced about 12 athletes but when they could not get the second season sold, they were forced to pivot.

“We moved on to a smaller budget and had athletics trials. We went around parts of the country — we could afford to go around without any sponsor… we did these trials in 2018, that was like the second iteration, where we recruited about 16 athletes in total.”

Their persistence, he said, bore some fruit.

“In the past eight years since we’ve been running the academy, the athletes… have won over 70 national and international medals and counting. [We have produced] a couple of Olympians; one two-time Olympian; and, you know, the international medals have been won at Commonwealth Games, African championships, African Games. [But,] no Olympic medal yet but, you know, we’re hoping that with this third iteration with MTN Champs it’s going to supercharge what we’ve been doing,” Akani, the Making of Champions (MoC) founder, said.

“We’ve learned a lot over the last decade, and I think convincing MTN to come on board happened around the nine-year mark. They had been having discussions with us and then some interesting things started happening.

“Tobi Amusan broke the world record in the 100m hurdles and then suddenly all the brands, all the companies in Nigeria, started ringing us — even though she was never a part of the programme. But because we do all the media work, as well we go to all the international events, when brands in Nigeria wanted to contact her they picked up the phone and called me and said, ‘Okay, can you get us in touch with her?’ And ‘Oh, about your project, we will do your project now, you know, we’re ready to do it now,’ ” he recounted.

He said the relationship with MTN solidified and about a year later they got the green light.

Given the massive size of the West African country — Nigeria has a population of approximately 230 million people — and the thousands of high school students who are involved, MTN Champs is held in four parts. There are three regional meets and then the grand final. Each event is held over three days.

“In that way we get to hit all parts — north, east, west, south — of Nigeria” Akani explained,

He said in the first season they had 7,000 athletes across 400 secondary schools. In season two there were 8000 athletes across 500 secondary schools.

“So over the two seasons, 15,000 kids, 900 secondary schools, unlocking something in Nigeria that everybody wants. Athletics is the national sport that’s been dying, and if you give schoolkids the opportunity to run against all the other kids in the country they will come out in numbers — and that’s why we’ve seen already 15,000 kids across the two seasons.”

In Jamaica there is a culture of supporting high school sports, and it is similar for college sports in the United States.

He said it is different in Nigeria.

“There’s absolutely no culture there with that. You see some schools across Nigeria who try to cultivate that, one school — Government College in Ughelli, in the mid-western part of Nigeria — they have their own relays, for example. They have a strong old boys’ association but it’s few and far between.

“A lot of schools have strong old students’ associations but most are not thinking about athletics in particular. There are other endeavours [but] hopefully we can get them to start thinking about athletics and the platform that athletics can provide for our kids in the country,” he said.

He said spectator support is also growing.

“It’s not there yet, we need to build it, [but] because we don’t have that 100-year culture, this has arrived suddenly for Nigerians,” he explained.

He told the Observer that finding a suitable time for staging the championships has been a challenge.

“We did the first season [from] October to December 2023 and we were able to convince the sponsor to go straight into season two, so we reset the season to February to April, May — you know, second term of the academic year, essentially — and that’s when we plan to do it every year now.

“So it’s been a bit rushed, we don’t yet have that culture of everybody looking out for it but hopefully we start [marketing] three, four months in advance this time around and, you know, do the publicity and get everyone knowing in all of the cities we’re coming to that, ‘Hey, this life-changing championship is coming to your city and let’s get the kids who are in the schools,’ ” Akani said.