By Uzor Odigbo
Former IAAF World Half Marathon Champion Godfrey Chirchir Kiprotich will be one the first international elite runners to arrive for the 2018 Access Bank Lagos City Marathon.
Kiprotich will arrive on Wednesday with Ethiopian Airline.
A product of the popular St. Patrick High School, a school renowned for producing successful distance runners, Kiprotich grew up running barefoot and alongside his training partner Evans Rutto they achieved many feats on the road.
Kiprotich has served as pacemaker to Rutto at a number of marathons, including the 2003 Chicago Marathon, which Rutto won, the Chicago Marathon, New York City Marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon, Country Music Marathon and the Dubai Marathon.
Also arriving on Wednesday is Eliud Matu Weru. The Access Bank Lagos City Marathon General Manager Yussuf Alli said most of the foreign elite athletes and the Nigerian elites most of them from the Northern part of Nigeria will arrive on Wednesday.
Alli said the 2018 field was very rich and he would expect a new record for the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon,
“Starting at 6.30am will give the runners a huge advantage as they would have covered a lot of ground before the sun rises,” he said
Alli also stated that top officials of the IAAF and AIMS would arrive same Thursday,
“We are now a label race so everything we do is of special interest to the IAAF, the governing body of athletics in the world and AIMS. Our biggest selling points are our route which is very smooth and the crowd, so the world will be looking up to Lagos this weekend’’
Alli appealed to Lagosians to be nice to visitors and come out in their thousands to cheer the runners.
Meanwhile, about 1000 Nigerian and international media practitioners applied for accreditation for the 2018 Access Bank Lagos City.
According to Olukayode Thomas Head Communications and Media, this is a new record as only 300 applied for accreditation at the first edition, while a little over 400 applied for accreditation in 2017.
Thomas revealed that the accreditation for athletics reporters would be distributed on Wednesday, while the others can pick up their accreditation on Thursday at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
Thomas also said that there would be a media seminar for athletics reporters on Wednesday,
“ Marathon is a new culture here, most of our reporters are used to short distances and field events, so the core stakeholders: the organizers, the sponsors, and the athletics reporters need to have a good understanding of what we are doing and how we can make the work of the reporters easier.’’
Speakers at the seminar include Kwenku Tandoh the Executive Chairman Lagos State Sports Commission, Bukola Olopade Project Consultant Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, Yusuf Alli General Manager Marathon, Tony Ubani, President Guild of Sports Editors, a representative of both the medical and security committee, a speaker from Kenya and representative of athletics reporters.
Thomas said the seminar was strictly for athletics reporters. “ I am also using this medium to appeal to others journalists who will be covering this marathon but does not have the culture of marathon to please study the media guide and respect the dos and don’ts especially movement in areas where athletes are running or recover area. For this edition, we have a standard media workstation with internet facilities, journalists are advised to stay within the media station, all the winners and officials they intend to interview will come to the media workstation,’’ said Thomas.