By Francis Ajuonuma
Over 10,000 runners are set to compete at this year’s Lagos Women Run holding on Saturday 9th of November in the City of Excellence.
The 10 Km race, in its ninth edition takes-off at the popular Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos Island, through to old NITEL building to Officers Mess, down to Ahmadu Bello Way and then link Akin Adesola and connect to Falomo to Polo Club, then down to Awolowo Road down to Onikan Round About and finish at Mobolaji Johnson Stadium.
Speaking at a media briefing held on Tuesday, October 29th at the Boardroom of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos to herald the 2024 Lagos Women Run, initiator of the event, Tayo Popoola stressed that this year’s race is more than a run as its offers opportunities for women development in the state and beyond.
She explained that the Lagos Women Run apart from being a sporting event serves as an advocacy for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) which aims to help, empower women and showcase Lagos as well support women networking.
The SDG aims at achieving peace and prosperity for people and the planet – while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests.
Ms Popoola, a former Nigerian taekwondo champion, expressed optimism that this year’s edition promises to be better than previous editions as the organisers have put all arrangement in place to achieve that.
She acknowledged the Lagos State Government for providing the right environment and supports with the various agencies at ensuring a hitch free race.
“As we all know, is the ninth edition. the city of Lagos is celebrating another year and we in Lagos Women Run, we’re actually making it to be more Successful than we ever had.
“Everybody in Lagos will be having fun that day. The runners are looking forward to it, Lagosians are looking towards it and we’re going to make everybody to celebrate that day and we’re going to make people happy.
“This year’s edition is more than a run because there is going to be different kinds of empowerment programmes and we want to make sure that at least a woman can be able to put food on the table and that is what we want to do. So, we need to support the women and we need to train them on how to go about it,” she said.
Speaking earlier, Lagos State Athletics Association (LSAA) Chairman, Dr. Solomon Alao commended Ms. Popoola for incorporating empowerment and health awareness programmes into the Lagos Women Run which has been showcasing Lagos positively globally and promised to support this year’s event.
Collaborating Dr Alao, the Director-General, Lagos State Sports Commission, Lekan Fatodu said Ms Popoola has really supported women course, showcased the rich culture of Lagos to the world, using the Lagos Women Run platform and pledged the state continuous support for the race.
Over 20 elite athletes are expected to feature in this year’s edition which has been made free for the local runners. Last year winner went home with N1.5m, veterans category receives N500,000.
