Lagos- Lagos State Athletics Association (LSAA) on Thursday said not less than 50 schools across the country have registered for the maiden Lagos Athletics Relay Championships.

The competition is scheduled to hold at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, from April 24 to April 25.

A statement released by the association said that schools from Delta, Kwara, Ondo, para-military clubs registered for the competition.

It said that about N8 million would be won by athletes at the two-day event.

According to the organisers, the championship is one of the series of events under the Lagos International Sports Classics.

Some of the competitions include: table tennis, badminton, taekwondo, swimming and golf.

The statement added that there would be nine events to feature at the championships in the junior and senior categories.

The statement quotes Olatunde Makanju, the Chairman, LSAA as saying that the competition was aimed at igniting the interest of students in athletics.

It added that that the maiden edition would provide avenue for the state to discover good athletes that could represent the country in global athletics meets.

“From our observation, it has been discovered that athletics is going down in our schools. We feel that staging this kind of event will help to re-ignite the interest of the students to embrace the sport.

“Apart from this, we are hoping that the competition will become a world-class event with the best athletes across the world coming to Lagos to compete for the prize-money.

“For us in Lagos, we are always setting the pace and we hope that this maiden edition will be a springboard for the sport to win more disciples and have more young people competing,” it said.

The events in the junior category would feature — the 4×100 metres, 4×200 100 as well as Swedish relays — 100 metres, 200, 300 and 400.

The top three athletes in each event would win N50, 000, N30, 000 and N20, 000 respectively.

In the senior category, states, clubs, tertiary institutions, military, para-military organisations and foreign countries will compete in the 4×100 metres, 4×200, and 4×400 as well as sprint medley relays in the 100 metres, 200, 400 and 800.

The best three teams and individuals would take home, N120, 000, N80, 000 and N50, 000 respectively in each event.