College To Sustain Production Of National Athletes

The Vice-Principal, Administration, King’s College, Lagos, Mr Charles Utomi has said that the college will sustain its tradition of discovering sportsmen who will represent the country in international competitions.

Utomi spoke in Lagos, at the end of the college’s annual mini-marathon, tagged “The 2012 Ikoyi Run,’’ last weekend.

He said that the competition,, organised by the college, which the British established in 1909, was to prepare its students for track and field events.

“You can see that a new record has been set in the competition, because an SSS III student returned a time of 33 mins 27secs, as against last year’s winner’s 47 mins, 27secs,’’ he said.

Utomi said that they had taken care of all the logistics to ensure that the college came out tops in national competitions during the year.

He added that the primary mandate of the institution was to graduate all-round students, fully grounded in academics, sports and character.

“In King’s College, the three components go hand in hand because, if you graduate and excel academically without having sports or character, you will hardly be identified as a King’s man,” he said.

Mr Shittu Sualiman, Sports Master/Head, Physical and Health Education Department of the college, said that the Ikoyi Run was to sensitise the community to its yearly inter-house sports.

Sulaiman said that the finals of the competition, slated to hold next weekend, would see students at the junior, intermediate and senior categories competing in various sports.

“We are happy that new stars are emerging from competitions like this where talents are identified.

“We are also expecting to see more of them in our upcoming competitions because that will mean that we are still on course in the area of producing athletes for the country,’’ he said.

The winner of the race, Azeez Tijani, said he was happy to have set a new record, adding that it was determination that saw him through.

Tijani, who is also the games prefect and captain of the college’s football team, said that the victory did not come to him as a surprise because he had been training for the competition.

“I have been doing a lot of training with my team-mates for today’s competition and it paid off for both me and the others who came second and third respectively.

“I am happy to have set a new record during the 18km race, as well as for the recognition it has fetched me,’’ he said.