One
of the aspirants contesting to be the next president of the Athletics
Federation of Nigeria, AFN Olukayode Thomas has made a bold promise that
he would be reviving the culture of Road Races and Marathons in the
country if elected.
Thomas
said looking at the Kenyans and Ethiopians who are world powers as far
as long distant races are concerned, they are like the Northerners who
are mostly farmers and nomads who usually leave in high altitude
regions.
The
AFN Presidential aspirant promised to start developmental programs that
would allow for early detection of talents that can be nurtured into
stardom and world beaters.
“Road
races and marathons will definitely get adequate attention from me if I
am elected to lead the AFN, we will be starting developmental programs
that would help in bringing out these athletes at an early age,” he
assured.
Thomas
noted that lack of development is killing a lot of potentials in the
Northern region and it was the high time something is done to stern that
ugly trend.
The
AFN Presidential aspirant noted that the winning time at the last
Access Bank Lagos City Marathon which commands a healthy winning prize
money of $50, 000 was what Nigeria marathon record holder Abbas Mohammed
was running 30 years ago.
“Just
imagine if we have been training the young athletes in that region for
long, we would have raised those that would be better that Abbas
Mohammed that would be running races around the world.” He concluded.
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