Yusuf Ali, the General Manager (GM) of Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, says the long-distance race is close to achieving Platinum Label.
Alli spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at his Teslim Balogun Stadium office in Surulere,Lagos on Thursday.
NAN reports that Platinum Label is a designation given to elite road running events by the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF).
The Platinum Label is the highest level of certification for road races, and it is awarded to events that meet stringent criteria.
The criteria include high quality organisation and management,strong fields with top international athletes,adequate prize money and athletes support
Some Platinum Label races include Boston Marathon,London Marathon, Berlin Marathon,Chicago Marathon and New York City Marathon
Alli, an Olympics medalist , said Lagos Marathon,a gold label race, had met all the criteria for designation as a Platinum Label race and that it was expected the 42 km race would achieve it after the 10th edition.
“I think we are close to getting the Platinum Medal category for the Gold Label Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, we are changing the status quo this year.
“Achieving the Platinum Medal category will be the first of such in Africa, among other countries staging marathons ,because there is no country in Africa that is in Platinum Label category.
“For the 10th anniversary, we have the elite athletes that can give us the Platinum Medal and also have our cross record, which is 2:10:00.
“The timing by the athletes is right for us, which will put us in good standing for the Platinum Medal,” Alli said.
Alli ,a former Director-General (D-G) of Edo State Sports Commission (ESSC), also disclosed that some issues that arose during the last edition had been fully addressed ,to put the race in good standing.
“Last year, the issue of water came up which we have also addressed; we will have more additions, so once we cross those hurdles, we can get the label.
“Right now, we have a good number of elite runners participating this year, we have seven gold medal elite runners in the male category, two in Platinum, five gold label for female and one in Platinum.
`The World Athletics (WA) has changed the ranking modalities and it is now for three months, and the runners must be among the top 300.
“We have crossed all those hurdles ahead of us, so this will really help us and put us in that league of the Platinum races in the world,” he said.
Alli added that the organisers had added other incentives to make the 10th edition more memorable and eventful,such as the invitation of pacers.
“We have a very big plan of having three pacers for the men category and one for the women category. The three pacers can also finish the race.
“We will be having a meeting with the athletes to discuss the issues about the pacers that they can also finish.One pacer will drop at 30 km, the second pacer at 35 km and the last at 40 km.
“If the pacers have the strength, they can also finish ,which also means that a pacer can also win the race.
“For the elite category, we have over 100 runners as of today ,we have about 30,000 runners, we have more runners in the 10km than in the 42km,” he said.
