• As Ashe Cruises To The Seniors’ Gold

By Egufe Yafugborhi

UYO – RIVERS state born Williams Stanley on Thursday clinched the gold in the 100m sprint at the grand finale of the athletics talent discovery meet, MTN Champs Season 3 ongoing at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, Akwa Ibom state.

Stanley who had maintained the fastest time through the heats and semifinals crossed the tape on the finals with a blistering 10.68s personal best ahead of Team MTN favourite, Alvin Onyeama who came second in 10.72s as Olerirume Righteous of Favoured Stars came third in 11.03s.

The new MTN champ, 16, of Team Obiano said after the victory, “I’m impressed by the progress I’ve been making. I participated in this competition last year in Benin and Calabar. This year I challenged myself to do better.

“Today, the hard work has paid off. I’m happy and learning a lot. The most valuable lesson is in not placing any limit in how much I can improve. The best is definitely yet to come for me as I push towards challenging for top spots growing into the senior category.”

Delta born Ejiro Peter of Team MVP maintained her dominance in the Junior (U-20) Women’s 100m, coasting to gold with in a Personal Best of 11.81s, her teammate, Tejiri Ugoh followed closely in 11.92s (PB) as Faith Chukwuma of Osadenis joined the podium for bronze in 11.94s (PB).

In the 100m senior category, easy did it for Favour Oghenetijiri Ashe, representing the Making of Champions who dominated through the heats and semifinals before taking the gold in the finals with a season’s best of 10.20s, Austine Ezuruike (Bayelsa) came second in 10.48s as Amreremenore of Edisiri of Global Track and Field came third in personal best of 10.58

Overall, Team MVP, however, imposed dominance in the Day 3 events with a number of her athletes securing podium finishes to validate their selection for the event which closes Friday.