Nigeria’s junior athletes, who conquered Africa at the maiden African Youth Athletics Championship in Warri last month, are to be honoured alongside the Golden Eaglets and the Flying Eagles at a Presidential reception at the Aso Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Under- 17 athletes emerged top in the competition which involved 12 other African countries.
Delta State athlete Divine Oduduru was outstanding at the Meet, winning the sprint as well as anchoring the country’s 4×100m relay quartet to gold.
The Golden Eaglets lost to Cote d’Ivoire on penalties after final scores stood at 1-1 in the finals of the African U17 Youth Championship held in Morocco, while the Flying Eagles placed third at the African Youth Championship in Algeria.
The U20s defeated Mali 2-1 in a third- placed match to avenge a 1-0 loss to the West African rivals.
Both teams have qualified for their respective World Cups and Nigeria can boast of a special record of having medals in Africa at full international, U20 and U17 levels in one calendar year.
Top government and sports ministry officials have initiated the presidential reception.
“The president will receive the teams on Tuesday at Aso Rock. All arrangements in this regard have been finalised,” a top government official revealed.
Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles, who are presently away in Germany on a training tour ahead of the U20 World Cup slated for next month in Turkey, will be honoured in absentia. Interestingly, after they won the 2011 African Youth Championship in South Africa, they were not honoured.
