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80-year-old man, 950 others to compete in Bayelsa unity marathon
…winners to go home with N1.5m, fabulous prizes
By Rasaq Adebayo
An 80-year-old man, Nathaniel Tom-Isele, will lead over 950 runners on 8-kilometre Brass-Nembe Unity Marathon race scheduled for August 13.
The unity race is sponsored by Hon. Israel Sunny-Goli, the member, representing Brass/Nembe Federal Constituency in the National Assembly.
Organisers of the marathon said the octogenarian, Tom-Isele, an indigene of Okpoama, Brass, has been medically cleared and certified fit to participate in the race targeted at discovering long-distance runners of Bayelsa extraction.
The Chairman of the Organising Committee for the Unity Marathon, Chief Feliks Sieri, said the participants had been medically cleared and the organizers were set to receive visitors and participants from Nembe and Brass to compete.
He said: “The hospitable people of Nembe-Brass are set and prepared. People from the approved communities of Nembe and Brass must identify the participants. The age is limitless.
“There is an 80-year-old ex-serviceman who was convinced not to participate but he refused and insisted he will participate. He is already training along the route of the marathon. The participants comprised 250 women and 700 men.”
Sieri also assured participants that three medical doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff would be on the ground with well-equipped ambulances to take care of participants.
He also assured the participants that security issues would be taken care of by security personnel and local security groups.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Media/Publicity Committee, Noel Dimi Inafa, said the race is for both professionals and upcoming long-distance runners from Brass and Nembe areas as well as non-indigenes domiciled in both areas of the state.
On the cash prizes set by the organizers for the participants, Inafa said the male marathon winner is expected to get N.5million, the 2nd position will get N350,000 and 3rd position get N150,000.
He said for the female category, the winner would get N.3million, the 2nd position would go home with N200,000 and third position would receive N100,000 as well as fabulous consolation prizes from 4th – 10th position of both categories.
