Okpekpe Organisers Mark One Month to Historic Race
One month from today, the historic Okpekpe International 10km Road Race will hold in Okpekpe near Auchi, Edo State.
It will be the first gold label 10km road race to be held in Nigeria and organisers have restated their commitment to organising an event worthy of its new status.
The race’s Media and Activation Director, Dare Esan said this year’s edition, the ninth in the series, will be the biggest so far in terms of the quality of elite athletes that will partcipate in it as well as its technical and administrative organisation.
“We are organising a gold label road race this year and, naturally, the quality of athletes that will race will have gold written all over them. As a gold label race, elite athletes that will compete must be gold level running athletes and this we have complied,” said Esan who believes the development will have a positive effect on the quality of performances.
“We are not only expecting a new course record for the men and women races but also a few of the athletes running a sub-29 minutes for men and a sub-32 for women,” he added.
Ethiopia’s Teshome Mekonen holds the men’s course record (28:35) while another Ethiopian, Wude Ayalew ran 32:41 to set the women’s course record, both set in 2014.
Esan also revealed the race this year will also serve as a qualifying race for the World Athletics Championships scheduled for Budapest, Hungary this August.
The Okpekpe international 10km road race is the first to be granted a label status by World Athletics in 2015 and it is also the first to have its course measured by a World Athletics accredited measurer.
Soccer Ambassadors to Honour Teluwo in Lagos
The refurbished Legacy Pitch at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos will be agog when over 100 players go on the turf to play a novelty match in honour of Chief Adewale Teluwo on Sunday, April 30 2023.
The match put together by a group of ex-internationals, known as TELUWO SOCCER AMBASSADORS, will be coordinated by Mr Anthony Olayinka Ajiboye, the Special Adviser on Sports to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
According to details released by the spokesman of the group, Mr, Victor Ehime Eghodosa, a giant trophy will be presented for an annual competition among leading clubs in Lagos to appreciate the efforts made by Chief Adewale Teluwo in promoting football from the grassroots level in the last four decades in the country.
It promises to be spectacle when the likes of Taribo West, now a pastor, Godwin Okpara, Golden Ajeboh, Festus Odini, Hakeem Ogunlade, Taiwo Enegwa, Sunday Ilevbare, Koya Dosunmu, Bala Garba, Victor Eghodosa, Joseph Eberefe, Segun Fetuga, Lookman Olugbode, Wilson Aki and Tobi Cottrel trade tackles against former players of Stationery Stores F.C. of Lagos. The match is slated for 3.p.m.
In a response, Teluwo said: “I am really excited. The boys are now men and they are all wonderful. This planning has been on for over a year and now, we give God the glory.”
