Top Stars Jet in for Okpekpe Road Race
All the invited foreign athletes confirmed for Saturday’s 3rd Okpekpe 10km Road Race in Okpekpe, Edo State are expected to arrive the country tomorrow according to organisers of the race.
In the travel itinerary made available to the media yesterday in Lagos by former Nigeria track and field star, Yusuf Ali, who is a member of the Main Organising Committee (MOC) for the race, all the athletes except Foimi Justilin of Cameroun will arrive Lagos from as early as 5.30 tomorrow morning till a few minutes past noon.
Foimi was expected in Lagos late Tuesday evening from Douala, Cameroun while Morocco’s Lahbabi Aziz is expected to jet in at 5.30am today.
Also expected in Lagos are three former winners of the annual Obudu International Mountain Race, Abebe Dinkesa, Hunegaw Yismaw and Genet Yalew who will jet in aboard Ethiopia Airline flight number ET 901 at 12.30pm.
Meanwhile Ali has assured all stakeholders that Saturday’s race will be very different from the two earlier editions because of the international recognition it has received.
“As you all know the Okpekpe 10km Road Race is now one of the few races the International Association of Athletics Federations ( IAAF) has designated as one of the leading road races around the world.
“In fact, we have only three of such in the African continent,” began Ali, a two-time IAAF World Championship long jump finalist.
“The Okpekpe race is now an IAAF bronze label race and what this means is that all rules regulating the organisation of the race as laid down by the IAAF must be strictly enforced.
“For example, the number of nations that must participate in a bronze label race must be at least four and we have satisfied this requirement by having athletes from Cameroun, Morocco, Kenya and Ethiopia who have ran faster than the standard set by the IAAF for the year.
“We are also going to