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The Nigeria Modern Pentathlon Federation has revealed that the country will host the maiden edition of the Pentathlon Youth Olympics African qualifier in November this year. The federation made this known at the National Stadium, Lagos, where the LASER-Run Tour aimed at training athletes and officials on the sport ended at the weekend.
According to the federation, LASER-Run, which involves athletes shooting with laser targets at a particular range and running a distance, is drawn out of Pentathlon, which comprises shooting, fencing, running, swimming and horse riding.
International Pentathlon instructor, Hossam Roshdy at the one-week tour trained and offered technical assistance to officials of the federation and the youths, who thronged the stadium to participate in the event.
Speaking at the LASER-Run Tour, where primary school children were trained on the rudiments of the sport, the president of Modern Pentathlon Federation, Jonathan Nnaji said Nigeria is proud to be one of the countries in the forefront of developing LASER-Run in the world. He explained that the school children were trained and made to compete against each other at the event to catch them young, adding that raising awareness of the youths in the sport would help in developing it.
“We are working hard to ensure Nigeria becomes the best in Modern Pentathlon as we hope to have one of our athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“We call on the Lagos State government, corporate Nigeria and philanthropic organisations to partner with the federation. Over 500 children participated at the event which shows that talents would soon be discovered in the sport,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, Director of the National Institute of Sports, Kingdom Chukwudi praised the federation for ensuing that LASER-Run is introduced among school children, saying that they are the future of the sport in Nigeria.
At the end of the event, certificates and medals were awarded to students who excelled at the championship.
