By Oluwole Akuji
Reasons have emerged on why officials of the Lagos Marathon turned down no fewer than 5000 runners who had show their willingness to participate in the yearly event.
Part of the reasons, it was gathered has to do with last minute rush by the affected runners after the expiration of the deadline alloted to picking up of their kits for the tournament.
According to the Technical Director, Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, Mr. Alli, he disclosed that the last minute rush by the intending runners would would affect getting accurate record of runners.
His words: it is important that those who register for the marathon are timely in their online registration and in picking their kits for the race, to keep to the World Road Race’s standards.
“There were fewer runners in this year’s edition because many runners came late for the collection of their kits and we have to turn down about 5,000 that came on Thursday.
“People waited till the last minute and if we keep giving out kits until the last minutes, we won’t have accurate number of runners – which is our start sheet.
“People should abide by the deadline given; it’s not that we don’t want them, but we want to keep to the rules of the game which is good for us.
“I believe the numbers will increase because there was a time we had over 120,000 runners in the marathon but when COVID-19 came, it disrupted the figures, but we are picking up gradually,” he said.
He also disclosed that the 42 km Gold Label race had witnessed significant improvement from when it started nine years ago.
