Bukola Olopade, Nilayo Sports Management C.E.O. and Marathon organizer has given insights into upcoming road races, team Nigeria sponsorship concepts building ahead of the TOKYO 2021 postponed Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandenmic as he rules out Abuja road race.
“Am a pathological optimist, we have already started working on every strategies, we have not stopped working virtually even while I was in hospital trying to sell the team Nigeria concept to potential sponsors for support. This is the time to come together as Nigerians and support the athlete towards the Olympics 2021 success in TOKYO”, the Nilayo Sports management C.E.O charged.
“This is a blessing in disguise, not that we are happy about this development. In every bad situation, you must look for the light at the end of the tunnel and the good news in that situation. We are going to work very hard and assiduously together with the very marketable Sport Minister and his team so that we will get it right for our athletes so that the Olympics will be glorious for our team”.
“Our core business is road races for multitude of people.We are hit badly due to the pandemic. We have already cancelled the Abuja race and suspended Ojude Oba race but we are looking at Valuejet race only for Ultra races combining of 50 runners but we won’t be doing the 5kilometers race and the one with Abeokuta which involves elites runners if the world is not opened. Just recently, a vaccine was tested in Oxford university, so we are very hopeful. We are sure of Asaba Marathon in December and very optimistic about Lagos. In all of this we have a plan B strategy to continue doing business and making people enjoy road races as what Nilayo Sports management limited stands for”, he explained.
“As we all can see now that a healthy body is needed every time of the year for us to continue to be comfortable with our lives. WHO brief message done by it director talks about people keeping fit, eating well, walking, running, jogging and excersing, and that’s one of the reason I thought road race will galvanize our people into understanding that we can have a culture of running, walking, strolling, keeping fit so as to get our body accustomed to exercise so that pandemic of this nature won’t affect us that much”, he encouraged.
“To God be the glory, I want to believe that the message keeps spreading from South, East, West and North of Nigeria and see a tremendous growth in road races and the acceptance level from people has been amazing. A typical example, I know as a matter of fact that in Lagos before, for the Lagos City Marathon, we had just about more than 20 running clubs but today in Lagos State from Epe, Badagry and the likes, when we count thier registrations, they are well over 200. In Abeokuta, I have just been told that they have over 52 running clubs from 3 running clubs after the race and am sure the same thing is happening in Remo and everywhere”.
“My main goal of going into road races apart from the obvious fact that it is also a business that has changed my life completely and has helped my family and those who work with me and have been able to touch thousands of people in terms of creating jobs. My main goal is to ensure that Nigerians are healthier than ever before”, Olopade concluded.
