THE presence of His Royal Majesty, Oba Rilwan Akiolu 1, Oba of Lagos was convincing enough even to the most critical of the MTN Lagos International Half Marathon that at last, measure is being taken to place the prime West Africa road race event on a proper perspective.
Lagos is a complex web of intertwining rusty and potholed corrugated concrete pathways. Otherwise, called “road networks” jammed with loud hooting carbon emitting vehicular traffic. In the masse of all this chaos, the people are also rated as the “most happy people on (planet) earth.” They perfectly fit into Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s description in Suffering and Smiling. Current conservative population estimates place Lagos in excess of the entire 16 million Ghanaians.
This is the city that South African telecommunication giants, MTN Communication Nigeria has invested more than 250 million Naira to raise a standard Road Race competition of international repute in three years.
After a lull of eight years, MTN with the support of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, in 2002, revived the Road Running culture in Nigeria. Marathon is a mass participation sport with professional athletes competing alongside amateurs.
Before the 2002 maiden MTN Lagos Half Marathon, there had been the Milo Marathon that ran a full course of 10 years ending in controversial circumstances. “Nigerians are too negative about their own self. I do not understand why we don’t believe in ourselves. Nigerians are capable of winning the marathon event anywhere in the world, given the proper training and orientation,” Mary Akor, a United States-based road runner told Sports Vanguard on a recent visit.
Indeed, the 10th Milo Marathon ended with the “confusion” of whether Gideon Hagack (a Nigerian) or the Kenyan Benson Muriuki won. Organising a decent road race competition in a chaotic city like Lagos has also not been helped by the very many myriad of social malaise affecting it, with street urchins taking over the race course. The 2003 edition, was marred by the invasion and obstruction caused by these urchins who saw it as an opportunity to get a “share” of the “National cake.”
During the 2002 edition of the MTN Lagos International Half Marathon “professional athletes ran alongside CEO’s of blue chip companies, street traders, high school students, newspaper vendors and even the unemployed,” said former CEO Adrian Wood. “It didn’t matter whether you were black or white, from the north or south, male or female, Christian or Muslim. Our differences disappeared and were subsumed in the conviviality of sport.”
Passions shared by Wood were lacking in the subsiding edition. “We have learnt so much from the error of 2003. In fact, we do not even want to talk about it because we want to move on to better things,” Abass Umaru, General Manager, MTN Marathon told Sports Vanguard in Lagos. Umaru believes, “the Lagos Half Marathon will come together as one of the very best in the international calender in the coming years.”
This assertion is shared by the president of the Athletics Federation, Dan Ngerem who rates the first edition as a “monumental success.” “We are talking about a one-day event that had 125 countries hooked on live television following a partnership between the AFN, NTA (Nigeria Television Authority) and TV5 of France,” Ngerem said.
And “forgetting about the 2003" mis-race, has also led the organisers to seek better ways at promoting an enduring marathon culture, not only for Lagos, but the entire country.
To achieve these objectives, MTN has now partnered with the Lagos State Government and Iga Iduganran (palace of the Oba of Lagos) to give the event one laced with fun, culture and entertainment.
“Yes, everybody is talking about the events of 2003 as a result of the mixture of the state monthly environment sanitation exercise clashing with the marathon race. But we have all put that behind us now and are looking forward to building an enduring marathon culture of fun and culture for Lagos,” Opeyemi Bamidele, Lagos Commissioner of Sports told Sports Vanguard.
HRM Oba Akiolu 1, at a one-day stakeholders conference to sensitize the public on the third edition of the event, shared the Bamidele sentiment as he led a delegation of more that ten high class chiefs to the Sheraton Hotel venue. The Lagos royalty believes the city was ripe enough for marathon of international standing and notes that, “the unique culture of Lagos could also be harnessed to form the basics of international attraction” for the road race.
Akin Adeoya, chief media consultant for the marathon also believes “this years’ marathon will surpass all estimations. We are looking beyond this level of marathon participation and want to see how we can make the Lagos event to compare with other world class races like the London, New York and Berlin Marathons.”
With the days getting fewer to the November 20 date for the Lagos marathon, organisers have started advising participants to “continue eating plenty of carbohydrate rich foods. Carbohydrate is your fatigue-fighting fuel. Put enough of it in your system before the race and it will help you extend your endurance and maintain your race pace longer.”
With a record high 20,009 registered participants last year, this year’s target is within the region of 30,000 runners.
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