Organisers of the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon are targeting a faster time of two hours 10 minutes finish in the 10th edition of the race, which is holding tomorrow.
 
The General Manager of the Race, Olympian, Yusuf Alli, said yesterday during a symposium for accredited journalists, at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, that the gold label category race is closer to achieving its platinum label dream after its 10th anniversary.
 
Alli said that the indices of achieving the much-coveted platinum label have been fulfilled by the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, adding that it is working hard to be the first in Africa to achieve the platinum.
  
“Right now, we have a good number of elite runners participating this year. We have seven gold medal runners in the male category, two in platinum, five gold labels for women, and one in platinum. Right now, the World Athletics (WA) has changed the ranking modalities and the runners must be among the top 300.
 
“We have ticked all the boxes needed for qualification for the platinum label. We are changing the status quo this year. Achieving the platinum label category will be the first of such in Africa among other countries staging marathons. For this 10th anniversary, we have elite athletes that can give us the platinum medal, and also have our cross record, which is two hours, 10 minutes,” Alli said.
 
Alli, a former Director General of Edo State Sports Commission (ESSC), also disclosed that some issues that arose from the last edition have been fully addressed to put the race in good standing.
  
“Last year, the issue of water came up, which we have also addressed. The organisers have added other incentives to make the 10th anniversary more memorable, which include the appointment of pacers.
 
“In this area, we have a very big plan of having three pacers for the men’s category and one for the women. The three pacers can also finish the race. We will be having a meeting with the athletes to discuss issues about the pacers that they can also finish. One pacer will drop at 30 kilometres, the second pacer at 35 kilometres and the last at 40 kilometres. If the pacers have the strength, they can also finish, which also means that a pacer can also win the race. For the elite, we have over 100 runners as of today. We have more runners in the 10km than in the 42km,’’ Ali said.