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Access Bank Lagos City Marathon Can Be Africa’s Marathon Hub, Says IAAF Official

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The Grade A measurer of International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), Norrie Williamson, has hailed the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon as having great potentials.

He remarked that the host city as Africa’s largest economy has the potential to be Africa’s marathon and road races hub because of its strong economy, people’s passion for sports and population.

Williamson, who measured the course of many of the world’s biggest marathons, including the marathon course of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Athens, Sydney and Beijing, remarked: “Lagos has the advantage of numbers; 25 million people in one city. If you say 10 percent of those people are interested in health and exercise; that is 2.5 million. If you take 10 percent of that as being interested in serious running, club running etc then you have got the numbers to make it happen.

“Let’s put it into perspective. In the New York Marathon, only 50 percent of the runners get under five hours. Typically in Africa, virtually every marathon runner aims for less than five hours. Out of that, you would have 10 percent, now you are talking two to three thousand runners who are capable of sub-3 hours’’.

Williamson, who has been measuring course since 1985 said for Lagos to fulfill it potentials,  “there needs to be a structure and basic information and then there need to be the channeling of those with talent to go on.

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“The basic marathon training is this: the faster you are over the short distance, the faster you are over the long distance. For instance, Hailed Gabriselassie held the world record at every distance from the 1500m up to the marathon; why because he was faster over the short distance. “

Comparing Lagos marathon route to that of Dubai, Williamson said “Dubai is a harder course than Lagos potentially and the reason is that Dubai is totally flat. Therefore, you are using the same muscles in exactly the same way for 42km. Lagos course has a couple of inclines; getting on and off the bridge for example. Once people get used to this course potentially, it is a faster course. They have run a 2:04 in Dubai and the next question to ask is what the weather was like. The day they ran the 2:04 on Dubai, the weather was like 16 degrees in the morning and if the weather is good a 2:08 or even 2:06 should be possible in Lagos”.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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