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At
the last edition of the Lagos International Half Marathon, which held
in February 2009, the presence of world acclaimed long distance runner,
Haile Gebrselassie, was one of the high points of the event.

Though the
Ethiopian did not compete in the race, his presence added glamour to
the event, which was won by the duo of Kenyan’s Luke Kibet and
Netherland’s Lornah Kiplagat.

Dashed expectations

For athletes that
failed to meet their expectations at that year’s race, the thinking was
that they will be back to compete at the next edition of the race,
which was beginning to assume the status of a world class marathon.

As expected,
thousand of athletes had begun the process of registration for the 3rd
edition, which was first scheduled for December 12, 2009 but after an
endless wait, an unsigned message was posted on the event’s website by
the sponsors, read:

“May I start by
thanking you for the enthusiasm shown for the Glo Lagos International
Half Marathon which was earlier scheduled to take place in Lagos, on
December 12, 2009. We, in Globacom, were looking forward to receiving
you at the event and to, once again, have a memorable time together.

“However, we regret
to inform you that the event has been postponed owing to circumstances
beyond our control. In consultation with all stakeholders, especially
the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), it was agreed that the event
be postponed till next year.

“A new date is
being considered by all concerned and will be communicated to you in
due course. Your registration details are still valid and we will get
back to you as soon as a new date is fixed to remind you. We hope you
will still be able to join us at the start-line on the new date.”

Game over

That promised has not been kept. The race was neither held in the 2009 – when the message was posted nor in 2010.

The AFN, after
waiting two years for the company to fulfil its promise, announced on
Wednesday that it was terminating its contract with Globacom. A
statement released by the federation and signed by Duro Ikhazuagbe, its
Media Officer, said:

“The Athletics
Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has terminated its relationship with
Globacom due to the inability of the telecommunication company to
fulfil terms of the contract for the annual Glo-Lagos International
Half Marathon”.

This decision was
said to have been taken at the a board meeting of the AFN, which took
place in Abuja on January 26 where the federation insisted that it
could no longer wait endlessly for Globacom on the international
marathon.

Geofrey Ogu, an AFN
board member who confirmed the decision of the board revealed that
Globacom had been in default for two years running.

“The board (AFN)
has just decided now to terminate the contract. We are going to give an
update on the marathon in due time. What however is certain is that the
contract with Globacom has been terminated,” he said.

The federation
explained that its decision was the outcome of many months of trying to
persuade the telecommunication company to honour its obligation in line
with the five-year contract it signed in 2007 with the federation.

The Technical/
Performance Director of the AFN, Sunday Bada, recently said the
inability to host Lagos Half Marathon has become an embarrassment.

“We have an
existing contract with Globacom. The terms of the five years contract
says that the event will hold every year but for whatever reason that
didn’t happen last year and this year they are not making any move to
see how the event will take place,” observed the former IAAF World Cup
winner.

While reiterating
the importance of the Half Marathon as the biggest AFN event, the
Sydney Olympic 4x400m gold medallist frowned at situations where
sponsors fail to honour agreements.

Globacom keeping mum

When NEXTSports
sought the position of Globacom on the development, Harry Iwuala, the
company’s Sponsorship Manager, said he was not in a position to comment
on the matter.

“I am sorry I
cannot comment; I have not been given the authority to comment on this
issue, so I cannot say anything about it,” he said.

It does appear however, that the door may not have been completely closed on Globacom.

“Of course we are still open to discussion with Globacom but we will not be resting on our oars,” Ikhazuagbe said.

For the major
actors, the athletes and coaches, a quick resolution is imperative
given that the marathon is one of the events they look up to every year
in the country’s athletics calendar and would not be happy to see it
scrapped.

Njoku Genevieve was
one of the top Nigerian female finishers at the last edition and for
her the problem needs to be solved as soon as possible.

“They should please
settle the problem. Of course we cannot run for free so we the need the
sponsors. They should just help us bring back the marathon,” she said.

Abass Rauf, coach
of Greater Tomorrow Athletics Club, whose athletes also take part in
the race said a quick resolution is what they call for.

“It will be in the interest of everyone for this matter to be
quickly resolved. Nigerian athletes have been benefitting from this
event and we cannot just allow it to die,” he said.