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.
The AFN and other Sport Federations elections are fixed for Tuesday, June 13 in Abuja.