By Thunder Balogun
The Baluba Kingdom will be celebrating 60 years of existence starting from 18th to 30th of September, 2023. This will be a 7 day celebration as some events will take place in order to make the celebration more colorful. One of these events is a marathon race that will takes place on the 20th of September, 2023.
The sports minister, Daniel was questioned as he gave more insights on the event and how prepared they are. Below are the whole nine yard of his replies;
He said” the event will takes place on the sport day by 8:00am and the events is only meant for Zikites as there will be a registration fee of 500 naira”.
He stressed out the fact there is no limit to the number of marathoners that can participate as there would be refreshments for all runners alongside with involvement of the health committee who will provide effective first aid treatment in case of any injury along the way. The first aid personnels will be in the car that will follow the runners.
When he was asked if there would be kits for the marathoners, he answered by saying ” there will be tags for each participants for easy identification. There will also be a medical test for every participants on that day before they are allowed to participate in the event.
Daniel made known that the sport committee is still deliberating on the cash prizes to be given to the first, second and third. He said” the first will get a cash prize of 30k, second will get 20k while the third we’ll get 15k but it is yet to be finalized.
He confirmed that there will be announcement for people who have health issues so as to prevent any form of further health complications.
When questioned about the presence of the Defense team to coordinate the runners, He said “Yes, their attention will be required and regarding the distance to be covered, we still deliberating on it and I will give you update later”.
The above are the replies of the sport minister regarding the upcoming Marathon event but there are some nuts they are still yet to crack. An event like this require a very good anti doping test in order to ensure that every man is using his own natural ability so that no man will feel cheated.
This is essential as it will show seriousness towards the Drug abuse campaign that will hold on the first day of the celebration, 18th of September, 2023. Campaign against drug abuse shouldn’t be by mere awareness of the dangers alone, actions must be taken so as to fish out those engaging in the act and recommend them for proper counselling. The UI management board should set up an anti doping lab in order to ensure no one is using illegal, helath threatening substance for physical task.
Also, the number of kilometers to be covered ought to have been finalized by now. How will you organize a race event and yet we don’t know where we are running to and the race is few days away. This shows how well prepared the Sport committee is for this event.
I hope the sport committee work on other areas so as to have a more standard event.
Did You Know?
Lev Yashin also known as the “black spider” is the first and only goal keeper to ever win a Balon d’Or. According to FIFA, he saved over 150 penalties during his career.
