13th August, 2018
Long distance athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia have indicated interest to participate in the first-ever Enugu City Half-Marathon tagged “Coal City International Marathon’’ as the Enugu State Government schedules event for Nov. 24.
Coal City International Marathon will be the first international half-marathon to be held in the entire South-East Zone of the country.
The Commissioner for Sports, Mr Joseph Udedi, told NAN in Enugu on Sunday that the marathon’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) had fixed the event in the fourth week of November after wide consultations.
Udedi also revealed that they had already registered national and local athlete associations.
He noted that the LOC had also placed restriction on the number of participants, noting that only 3,000 athletes from across the country and beyond would be registered to participate in the competition.
The commissioner also said the LOC had put in place prize money for the winners in the male and female categories of the event.
“For each of the categories, the winner gets 3,500 dollars, first runner-up 3,000 dollars and second runner-up 2,500 dollars respectively.
“There will also be prize money for the first six winners in each category as well as other consolation prizes,’’ Udedi said.
The commissioner said the event would spur home-based athletes to aspire to be like known international marathoners.
“The Coal City Marathon will surely put Enugu State on the world map of athletics in the area of excellence, development and talent discovery.
“The marathon period will be used to showcase the great culture and tourism prospects of Enugu State to the world,’’ he said.