The Technical Committee set up by the Edo State Athletics Association for the sixth IAAF Silver Label Okpekpe international 10km Road Race and the man who facilitated the setting up of the committee, Brown Ebewele have inspected the IAAF/AIMS measured Okpekpe race course ahead of the May 12, 2018 race in Okpekpe, near Auchi.
Spokesman for the race, Dare Esan revealed that the committee and the Route and Participation Coordinator for the race, Ebewele undertook the inspection of the course with a view to putting finishing touches to all the technical needs that will ensure a successful race.
“Organising a race is a complex operation, and will almost certainly take up more of your time than you anticipate. This is why the technical committee is working round the clock to ensure all the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted. They will have to recruit more hands and break the job down into component parts, each with its own team leader and/or director and working staff. For example there will be people in charge of the start and the finish who will be saddled with the responsibility of setting up the area including toilets, baggage handling, refreshments, crowd control barriers, timing system and a few other things.
“There will also be people in charge of the course, the route marshals who will be responsible for the signage, water and medical stations as well as those who will handle the entries and issue race numbers and instructions. There are also the starter, timekeepers, recorders and the race referee. You can see it is really a complex operation,†said Esan
The elevation of the race to a first ever silver label road race in West Africa has made it imperative that we leave no room for errors,†he further said.
Meanwhile, organisers of the race have secured accommodation for Nigerian elite athletes wishing to participate in the competition.
”The practice all over the world has always been to accommodate only invited elite athletes for the race but this time organisers feel there is the need to accommodate as many as possible a day before the race,†said esan.
“We don’t want to read about athletes complaining they slept at the stadium as was the case in some other road races in Nigeria. Ebewele, a true son of Edo State who is always after the welfare of athletes has secured a very decent accommodation for Nigerian athletes who want to be part of history as the first set of Nigerians to run in an IAAF Silver Label event.”
