Over 200 athletes are expected to take part in the first Brotherhood of the Cross and Star Calabar 10-kilometre marathon scheduled for July 20.
The organisers said yesterday that athletes from Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Delta states, among others, have already registered for the race. The International Chairman of the organising body, the Universal Youth Fellowship (UYF) of the BCS, Archbishop Tom Inyang-Akpan said they have invested resources to stage the race to mark their 42 years anniversary.
According to him, the race would be organised every year, depending on the interest shown by participants and support from the authorities in order “to regularly engage Nigerian youths and spot out good talents.”He said, “the marathon race is in collaboration with the Cross River State Sports Council and it has the theme: Race For Peace, as a way to emphasise peace and also profitably engage the youths.
“Already, from the registration process, we have entrants from Plateau, Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta States…We are looking at having over 200 participants. We have medical and security teams in place. We have marked out the routes and we will stress much on medical fitness.
“ We are giving out N200, 000 each for first prize for male and female. Second prize is N100, 000 each for male and female, while the third prize is N50, 000 each for male and female. “We also have N10, 000 each for the fourth to 10th place winners each for male and female, but hope to up the first prize to N500, 000 next year God willing.”
Meanwhile the National Chairman of Nigerian Association of Athletic Technical Officials (NAATO), Prof Lukas Olusegun Ogunjimi has arrived in Calabar for the race.
He told journalists yesterday at the U.J. Esuene Stadium Calabar, where the race will start off and end, that he would also represent the leadership of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) that have given their backing for the race. Ogunjimi said both NAATO and AFN were excited over the race and commended the organisers for providing all the funds and logistics for the exercise and athletes.
