By ABIRHIRE THOMAS
The Making of Champion (MoC) and ARCO Group have announced that one Jerry Jakpa, an old boy of Government College, Ughelli, Delta State and a recipient of MoC Student-Athele Scholarship, has just gained a US College Scholarship and that he will therefore move to the United States of America to continue the next phase of his career at West Texas A & M University.
ARCO Group, foremost sponsor of the Making of Champion’s Student-Athlete Scholarship, said Jakpa, who left for the US on Monday, January 9th, first paid an appreciation and farewell visit to ARCO Group’s Head office in Lagos and was received by the company’s Founder/GMD Mr Alfred Okoigun, along with other staff of the organisation.
By joining the school, Jakpa, according to the announcement, will be getting a fully funded college scholarship to complete his university education.
Jerry Jakpa, third left, paid a visit to ARCO Group’s Head Office to appreciate their support over the years.
They extended their support for Jakpa, paying for his flight ticket to the US to continue his athletics career, even as he will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati, whose athletics career was transformed after arriving at West Texas A&M in 2020.
“I am happy to have been a part of ARCO. Their support helped my career a great deal since MoC discovered me. I was able to travel to meets in Europe because of the kind of support I got. ARCO took care of my welfare, flight tickets abroad, feeding & accommodation; I am grateful” Jakpa said.
On his company’s support of Jerry’s career, ARCO’s Founder/GMD, Alfred Okoigun said: “While giving his address at the event, Okoigun said: “We at ARCO have always supported initiatives like this from the onset and support talented people to succeed in their respective fields. Some of the engineers we sponsored on scholarships abroad, we didn’t even know them but we invested in them because we saw the potentials.
“When MoC Founder/CEO Bambo Akani contacted us, we were happy to support this project (finding and nurturing talents) because we believed in it, and that Nigeria can produce champions. We would love to see Jerry reach the pinnacle of his career in such a way as it would delight us to know we have been part of his success story.”
Jakpa was discovered at the 2015 Top Sprinter competition in Benin where he caught the eye of the MoC coaches while running in the senior category of the men’s 100m and 200m despite his status as a junior athlete. He was relocated to Lagos to train under MoC Head Coach and Olympic medallist, Deji Aliu.
Under the guidance of MoC Track Club and thanks to ARCO Group’s support, Jakpa won several medals and went on to represent Nigeria in international competitions like the 2018 African Senior Championships and 2019 World Relays in Yokohama, Japan, where he was a member of the 4x200m relay team that ran a National Record (NR) of 1:22.08.
