Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Sunday said no fewer than 50,000 athletes from across the world are expected to participate in the second edition of Access Bank Lagos City Marathon billed on February 11, 2017.
Ambode, who stated this at Lagos House in Ikeja while addressing a world press conference on the marathon, said necessary logistics have been put in place to make the event hugely successful, and as well promote the tourism potential of the state.
The governor said about 33,753 runners including 65 elite marathoners from different parts of the world and over 100 local elite runners participated in the 2016 edition held on February 6 this year, while the marathon was adjudged as one of the best in the world.
He said the government was working to ensure that the 2017 edition would see a major improvement compared to the maiden edition.
Ambode said that as a result of the success of the maiden edition, several individuals and corporate organisations have contacted the organisers to partner towards ensuring a successful tourney, adding that it would go a long way to engage and empower thousands of Lagosians in various sectors.
The governor said that the 2017 edition, would also feature the top 10 men and women marathoners in the world, who would also be joined by many gold label, silver label and bronze label marathoners from different parts of the world.
He said the appearance fees for gold label runners is $50,000, silver label $20,000 and bronze label $10,000, adding that invited local and foreign elite runners would be paid 50 per cent of their appearance fee now and balance up when they arrive Lagos for the tourney.
Winner of the 2017 Lagos City Marathon, according to the governor, would also go home with a cash prize of $50,000, while second and third place winners will smile home with $40,000 and $30,000 respectively.
“The Lagos City Marathon is presently ranked 68th in the world, but our desire is to make it the top 10 in the world and that is what we are working on with the next episode of the event.
“Unlike the one held on February 6 this year, where we had over 30,000 athletes who participated, we are targeting a minimum of 50,000 runners who will take the city of Lagos by storm and put the city on the world map for coming up with such a huge event.
“We look forward to something exciting happening in Lagos. We are going to use sports as a vehicle to help develop our youths and when you talk about youth development you have to talk about recreational sports, about how you mentally activate younger ones and we just think that this marathon is one of those vehicles that we should use to galvanise sports in younger ones and even Lagosians at large,” Ambode said.
Herbert Wigwe, Managing Director of Access Bank, the major partners of the Lagos City Marathon, expressed optimism that the 2017 edition would be bigger and better.
He said Access Bank was glad to partner with Lagos State, noting that the success of the first edition did not only showcase Lagos to be an avenue for sports development, but also for the growth of tourism and youth development.
