Sunday 10 December 2023 was a historic day in the Alheri neighbourhood of Jos, the capital of Plateau State in North-Central Nigeria. It was a day that witnessed the birth of a community fitness event, christened ‘The Alheri gym festival’. This is a new initiative put together by members of the ‘Gospel gym’ (See more about this gym HERE) and was powered by Adonai event planners, Awuje Stores, Lady D eatery, DJ Crack, DJ RealSam, Lexicon photography, David Shoot and URA.
This debut edition featured five events, namely a bench press competition, barbell squats competition, deadlift competition, bodybuilding and a food competition. Alheri Street was the venue for the festival, precisely by the popular Awuje junction of the city, and it was very well-received by members of the community, judging from the massive crowd that showed up to watch the unfolding spectacle (Videos shall be posted on our social media channels in due course). Every event delivered its own unique form of excitement, with young athletes from the neighbourhood and beyond enthusiastically taking on each other in keen competition. The bench press competition was dominated by Ebuka a.k.a. ‘Stallion’, who was able to push 3 reps of a 167kg barbell weight, followed by brothers Nelson and Emmanuel Ndukwe, who benched 5 reps of 117kg each. Stephen Ogugua took the deadlift event, comfortably deadlifting 189kg (5 reps). Israel Simeon, a visitor from Makurdi in nearby Benue State came in second place having deadlifted 189kg, albeit via 4 unsteady reps. In third place was Boniface Daniel, who struggled to go beyond 167kg. By far the most interesting event of the day was the bodybuilding contest, featuring three athletes-the Ndukwe brothers, as well as Michael Salifu a.k.a. ‘Talented Hero’. The crowd was wowed as the three musclemen put on an exhibition worthy of some of the highest pro competition stages around the world, presenting an impressive blend of good aesthetics, conditioning and posing technique. This event was won by Nelson, with Talented beating Emmanuel to second place.
This first edition of the Alheri gym festival was deemed a huge success, and we all look forward to the next one! Enjoy some images from the event below and feel free to leave a comment afterwards!
The NBD
