The 5th edition of the 10 km Owan marathon has been scheduled for January 4, 2025, with athletes from across Nigeria and beyond expected to participate.
Mr Christopher Ojo, chief promoter of the event disclosed this during a news conference in Benin yesterday.
Ojo said the 2024 edition of the event promised to be an exciting convergence of sports, entertainment, and beauty, with the addition of the Owan beauty pageant.
“Just like in the previous editions of the Marathon, we aimed to also use this to discover new talents and groom them to stardom,” he said.
He said that the race was being organised by the Owan Trust/Global Bridge Initiative in collaboration with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
Ojo said the essence of the race goes beyond sports, as it also aims to productively engage youths and contribute to the fight against insecurity.
“It is also our little way of assisting the government to fight insecurity and create employment opportunities.
“It will be used to fight insecurity in the sense that the youths will be productively engaged, thus keeping them busy.
“We all know that sport is now a big-time business for both the athletes and even the government,” he said.
Speaking on sponsorship, he said the organisers were wrapping up discussions with some firms.
Ojo said that the 2024 edition would be more unique with the addition of sideline entertainment.
“You will agree with me that sport and beauty pageant are both entertainment in nature and also aimed at productively engaging the youths.
“We are also using these events to boost the local economy; the area will see people from various parts of the country converge either as participants, observers or tourists and so on.
“This event is not just about the people of Owan, we are prepared to host Nigeria that day,” he said. (NAN)