The Technical Director of Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, Yusuf Alli has revealed that approximately 5,000 runners were disqualified for failing to collect their kits on time.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Saturday, Alli emphasized that the last-minute rush by participants after the kit collection deadline expired would compromise the accurate record-keeping of runners.

He stressed the importance of timely online registration and kit collection to uphold the standards of the World Road Race. 

Alli noted,“There were fewer runners in this year’s edition because many runners came late for the collection of their kits and we have to turn down about 5,000 that came on Thursday.

“People waited till the last minute and if we keep giving out kits until the last minutes, we won’t have accurate number of runners – which is our start sheet.

“People should abide by the deadline given; it’s not that we don’t want them, but we want to keep to the rules of the game which is good for us.

“I believe the numbers will increase because there was a time we had over 120,000 runners in the marathon but when COVID-19 came, it disrupted the figures, but we are picking up gradually,” he said.

He expressed optimism about Nigeria’s future in world athletics, aiming to develop more Nigerian long-distance runners and increase incentives for elite athletes.

“By next year, we will concentrate on Nigerian runners; there was more focus on the elite runners this year because it’s a year for the Olympics while many of the runners want to qualify.

“By next year, we will narrow the elite runners to fewer numbers, get them paid well; the money paid for 88 elites runners will be pruned to 20 elites, then we will have room to increase bonuses.

“The bonuses will be increased from 10,000 dollars to 20, 000 dollars which is a great incentive.

“For this year, the weather is not friendly so we are looking at a way of altering the date for the marathon, ” he said.

Alli, who is the Chairman of Nigerian Road Race, also spoke about the vision of his committee to improve the road races in Nigeria.

“What we will do to improve the quality of the road race is to streamline the numbers to have a clear cut road race.

“From 2016 till now, we now have about 70 and more races in Nigeria, but half of the road race are not measured which gives room for discrepancies.

“We will henceforth certify the road races and measure them with accurate marathon device to check malpractices.

Furthermore, Alli outlined plans to streamline road races in Nigeria by certifying and accurately measuring courses to prevent discrepancies. 

He also proposed an exchange program with Kenyan runners to enhance Nigerian athletes’ training.

“We also intend on having an exchange programme with the Kenyans to train Nigerian runners.

“It is cheaper to bring them to Nigeria than taking the athletes to Kenya; we will exchange notes to see where we can fit in with their programme, ” he said.