Local organising committee (LOC) of the Access Bank/Lagos City Marathon may have been hit by cash crunch as a result of their inability to account for the initial fund released by the bank as sponsors.
Meanwhile, except the Lagos State governor, Akinwummi Ambode, released some money as at yesterday evening to keep the race on track, otherwise the athletes may be running for credit.
The marathon is billed to start this morning at 7.00 am, but as at yesterday officials were scratching their big bald heads on how to put the items on the check-list for the success of the race on ground.
It was gathered by www.gongnews.net checks that the sponsors, Access Bank, demanded an account of the monies so far spent, before they could release more funds. Since they could not get a satisfactory account, they held on to the balance.
“We have been here since morning waiting for race T-shirts and other things we need, but we have been asked to wait till Saturday morning,” said one of the athletics officials at the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Friday.
The LOC chairman, Deji Tinubu, who is the Chairman of the Lagos state Sports Commission, was not available for comment when we visited his office. Repeated calls to his phone did not yield results either.
However Athletics Federation of Nigeria president, Solomon Ogba assured that the event is on course and will hold as scheduled.
He was cited to have said that, “already we have the elite athletes on ground. They are being kept at the Eko Hotels, even at that we have more than the number of international athletes we expected and we have put them in hotels around Surulere.
“It is an Olympic year and most of the athletes here are aiming to run and get qualification times. So we are looking forward to a good start and finish on Saturday,” Ogba said.
Three bus load of international athletes were seen at the Teslim Balogun stadium. One of the athletes, Peter Kiplagat who won the 2015 Geneva Marathon said he hopes to finish the 42km race inside 2hrs 17 minutes adding that the time should see him among the top finishers.
“I am very excited to be in Lagos for their first City marathon, I have been training hard for this, this is my first time in Lagos and this is also my first big race of the year, I am here to win, I hope that happens on Saturday” Kiplagat declared.
The race with a total prize money of N92 million will start at the National Stadium Lagos and finish at the Eko Atlantic City. The AFN are known to owe athletes prize monies for years. We hope this won’t add to their credentials. -(Source: Gongnews)
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