The President, Rollers Sport Federation of Nigeria, Comrade Joseph Evah; The Secretary General Rollers Sport Federation of Nigeria, Mrs. Helen Awele Ilo; the Patron, National Speed Marathon, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, Chairman National Speed Marathon, Mr. Abi Iderawumi; other distinguished guests, our gentlemen of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen. It gives me a great honour to stand here today on behalf of the organisers of Nigeria’s 1st Rollers Skating Marathon, tagged National Speed Marathon (NSM) to welcome you all to this press conference.

The National Speed Marathon is a full skating marathon course, designed to showcase the skills, frills and thrills of the exciting sport being the maiden event in Nigeria. It is organized like similar skating marathons held in other parts of the world like Europe, America and Africa.

Skating is a new and refreshing sport which is designed to promote and harness the already generated public interest for the promotion of corporate and business interest. It was conceived as a national event with plans to be hosted annually across the thirty-six (36) states of the federation including Abuja.

National Speed Marathon 2020

The National Speed Marathon will hold in Lagos on the 18th of January 2020. It is a 42.5 km speed race expected to parade 5000 athletes across Nigeria which will include both male and female participants. This event shall feature participants from African countries and guests Athletes from Europe.

The idea to hold the first edition of National Speed Marathon in Lagos as the city of choice is based on our strong conviction that the National Speed Marathon holds tremendous social, sports, tourism, and economic potentialities for the State.

The route

Route will be announced on 4th November 2019. It covers 42.5 kilometres, carefully planned to traverse some of the interesting landmark sites in the city. The route is deliberately chosen to showcase some of the beautiful sites in Lagos, a city said to be the 5th largest economy in Africa.

The theme

We have partnered with Rotary International to raise awareness for prostate cancer through Rotary RAG (Rotarian Action Group for Prostate Cancer); and our theme is: SKATE AGAINST CANCER.

Essence of NSM

a)To showcase the fun and excitement of this sport; discover the talents, speed and agility of Nigerian Skaters and promote the sport in order to harness its social and economic benefits.

b) To place value on the sport; turn our skaters from local skaters to professional skaters and make them contribute to our society and economic development.

c) Provide a platform for credible and sustainable partnership between the sport and brands.

d) NSM is also envisaged as an event that will serve as a platform to train and expose talented skaters that could represent Nigeria in similar competitions across the world, especially the Olympics.

Benefits

– Upscale the growing interest for speed sport and harness the immense social and economic benefits of the sport.

– The event provides a platform to combine sport and play as a critical learning and development tool for youth engagement.

– It is a perfect event to brand Lagos and several cities in Nigeria, on the global skating map.

– Provide an alternative platform for sports and tourism in the state.

– The NSM will give a lifetime opportunity to our youths to achieve their dream in skating, as this will propel them towards another direction of sport competition.

“It is said that the amount of time our youths spend on sporting activities is less the time they spend in crime”, so if youths are constructively engaged, crime rates in our society will be reduced to the barest minimum.

Registration Fee per Skater : N3,000.00

 Prizes

MALE CATEGORY :1st Prize N3M; 2nd Prize Winner 2Milliom and 3rd Prize Winner N1million

FEMALE CATEGORY : 1st Prize Winner N2.5million; 2nd Prize Winner N1.5million while 3rd Prize Winner N1million

Consolation prizes to the first 50 runner-ups

As we all know, NSM is a novel sport in Nigeria requiring the support of relevant stakeholders for success. We know we cannot do this alone; thus we are seeking the support and participation of individuals, corporate sponsorship, and volunteers, to discover and nurture the hidden potentials in Skate sport, and build strong partnership between the sport and corporate brands while also investing into sport development in Nigeria.

We recognize the contributions of Roller Sport Federation of Nigeria, In-West Media, Wetherheads Advertising Group Limited, Lagos State Ministry of Youths Sports and Social Development, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, Sponsors, our Media Partners as well as other stakeholders for the success of the forthcoming National Speed Marathon 2020.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a great pleasure having you at this press conference today 30th of October, 2019, and we thank you all.