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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The famous annual gold label Lagos Marathon will finally transmute into World Athletics African Running after its 10th year anniversary.
The tournament, tagged “Reshaping Running and Mass Participation in Africa: Embracing the Global Community” will be held on the month of February next year.
Organisers of the event, who made the disclosure at a world press conference held in Abuja on Tuesday, revealed that they opted for Lagos because of the cosmopolitan and commercial hub nature of the state.
The National Sports Commission (NSC) in conjunction with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) has concluded arrangements to make the Africa Road Running Race an historic international event.
Speaking during event, Head of Road Race Running at the IAAF, Alexis Punzi Cisternino said that the race, the pilot edition in Africa, is rather a corporate event and not a running competition for career athletes.
Cisternino further explained that the world athletics body decided to endorse the championship because of the massive success of sporting developments in Nigeria and Africa generally.
He recalled that the road race was first introduced in the 70s while the second edition was in the 80s, adding that at the turn of 2022 and 2023, the event was given a new dimension with the like of the London City race.
According to him; “We have taken interest in the developmental strides of Nigeria in road races and marathons, that is one of the reasons we have endorsed the Lagos road race. There will also be a technical workshop which will last for two days to further deepen sports in Africa.”
“We want to ensure that going forward, the 10 km marathon in Abuja next year will be the same as what is going to take place in Sydney,” he revealed.
Commenting on it, Chairman of the NSC, Mallam Shehu Dikko, said that the Sports Commission decided to key into the championship because it is in line with its vision and Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The former second Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) equally assured that the NSC would be intentional about sports developing in the country, especially with the road race, which he said has come to be in vogue across different cities of the country.
“Every stakeholder should join hands to encourage the development of sports in the country. The NSC is working hard to reactivate our long race training centres in Plateau, Taraba and Adamawa.
“It’s our hope that the race will encourage many other people to embrace road running because that is now getting attraction across the world. I am happy that in Nigeria many cities have embraced marathons like Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna as well as the popular Okpekpe Road Race Marathon,” he said.
The NSC boss equally disclosed that there would be various prices for both the local and foreign participants.
Speaking earlier in his welcome remarks, the Director General of the NSC, Bukola Olopade said that they are determined to get all Athletics Federations in Africa, as well as corporate organisations to be part of the Lagos road race.
Olopade equally showered encomiums on the IAAF for choosing Nigeria ahead of many other deserving African countries for the first ever Road race in Africa.
“It’s a thing of honour that the World Athletic Federation chose Nigeria for the championship, instead of going to other countries like South Africa or Kenya,” he said.
