Twenty-five elite runners from the High Altitude Athletics Club of Jos in Plateau State have signed up to participate in the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon on February 6, 2016.
Plateau State and adjoining states like Bauchi, Kaduna, Gombe and others have the highest number of long distance, road races and mountain marathon runners in [link id=”815″ tax=”category” text=”Nigeria”].
Coach Steve Nuhu, owner of the High Altitude Athletics Club said the return of the Lagos City Marathon is one of the best things to happen to Nigeria sports in recent times.
“We are talking about youth empowerment, unemployment and other vices, what better way to engage our youths than having many marathon races and road races in Nigeria?” asked Coach Nuhu.
“I hope and pray that many other states, especially states in the Northern part ofthe country with a very high percentage of distance runners who train year in, year out but are not involved in competitions because of dearth or even absence of competitions will take a cue from Lagos and organize more road races, half and full marathons,” he said.
The Lagos City Marathon Route Map 2016
Steve Nuhu is optimistic that his athletes will not only win the national title but give the elite athletes from other parts ofthe world a good fight for the ultimate prize at the [link id=”863″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Access Bank Lagos Marathon”].
“For us, the [link id=”10755″ text=”February 6 Access Bank Lagos Marathon race”] is a celebration of our sports,” said Coach Nuhu.
“We are coming to Lagos with 25 elite marathoners and many fun runners. Our target is not just the prizes for Nigerians, but also the ultimate prize.”
“The reason why our athletes are not running fantastic times is because we don’t have competitions regularly like the Kenyans. The moment we start making money on the road, we shall compete more and rivaled the East Africans for the best prizes around the globe,” he added.
Meet The Authors
Mr Eludini is a Nigerian-based journalist and news researcher with a passion for athletics and football. Tunde is a staff reporter for Premium Times newspaper, and also a regular contributor to AthleticsAfrica.
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