A fast-growing teenage athlete at International School Lagos (ISL), Shittu Ibrahim has admitted that forthcoming final year examinations for senior secondary students will affect his training sessions on the tracks for two months.
With the Joint Admission Matriculation Examination (popularly known as JAMB) held next week on Saturday and the West African school leaving certificate exam (aka WAEC) starting on April 30th, Ibrahim admitted he will have to reduce his training hours for the time being.
He told Sports 247 after winning the boys’ 800m event at the maiden LAB Memorial Athletics Classics, which took place on Friday, amidst pomp and pageantry at the University of Lagos sports centre.
The energetic youngster, however, vowed to find a suitable way of mixing preparations for his exams with staying focused on the tracks, because one must not suffer for the other.
Ibrahim revealed further that he has a burning ambition to complete the 800m in under two minutes, which he is sad that he was not able to achieve at the inaugural LAB Classics.
The highly promising youngster then hinted that he would spend more time training after his upcoming exams, to perfect strategies that would help him enact a sub-2 finish before this year runs its full course.
The SS3 student at ISL, which is located on the premises of UNILAG, added eulogies for everyone who has supported him so far and who he believes will continue aiding his progress as the years go by while helping him achieve breathtaking results.
Ibrahim retorted, “This victory means a lot to me because I was not able to give my best in my last competition. Thank God, today, I was able to do well.
“I thank my coach, I thank my family, I thank my parents, everybody, for always supporting me. I also thank the organisers for giving me this platform to showcase my talent.
“The 2:04 time that I made today is my personal best, even before coming here. I tried to improve on it in this competition. Unfortunately, I was unable to do it. But, God on my side, and I’m sure that I will be able to improve next time.
“My target is to get to sub-2 this year. I want to run like 1:58 or 1:57 before the end of this year. I believe that I will achieve it by putting in more hard work.
“Although, as of now, I have exams that are coming up and will distract my training sessions, I will try to balance the two. I believe it will be possible, and I want to thank everyone for supporting me to make it possible.”
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