Road Race AFN reads riot act to organisers, insists on registration. All current and future organizers of road races in Nigeria must now register with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, or AFN, in order to have their events approved.
This is required, according to Tafida Gadzama, vice president of the AFN and chair of the federation’s road race subcommittee, as a result of concerns about the non-payment of prize money and unrecognized measuring of race courses.
The AFN has been informed in writing by World Athletics that failure to pay prize money will result in legal action being taken against the federation. This is unacceptable moving ahead, and all road race organizers must yearly register with the AFN and will be awarded licenses certifying them as such, said Gadzama, to ensure that our athletes get compensated for participating in any road event.
According to the AFN, signing up as a road race organizer is only the first step in having any race sanctioned.
He said, “The permits that will be provided upon registration will be tied to the other requirements to be completed.”
The AFN will also send technical and medical representatives to all officially registered road events in Nigeria under its road race subcommittee.
The World Athletics competition regulations have been broken in races when world records have been set despite the fact that we now know how good our athletes are. The AFN, as an affiliate of the global organization, cannot act otherwise, which is why it decided to send technical and medical representatives, just as World Athletics has been doing to safeguard the integrity of road races globally, particularly with the label road events.
Before, during, and after a race, “the technical delegates will guarantee that all World Athletics regulations are carefully observed and that all race courses are accurately measured.”
