Bonny Island Marathon in a Media Briefing held in Rivers State on Saturday, July 2, 2022 announce the return of the 5th Bonny Island Marathon scheduled for 10 December, 2022 with over 10,000 expected runners.
According to the Project Lead, Boma Halliday, participants will compete in a Prize pool worth Fifteen Thousand Dollars (15,000 USD) across the various categories of the Marathon. Boma added that the Marathon which started as a 10K Marathon has grown to 21K, and will also look to move to 42K in the nearest future due to the favorable terrain in the Island.
The Bonny Island Marathon started in 2018 as a sports-tourism marathon in Bonny Island, Rivers State. For the past four years, it has continuously evolved to meet the demand of the ever changing social dynamics in terms of objectives, social and economic impact. Since 2018, BIM has attracted thousands of participants running as professionals, amateur, and leisure runners across the male and female category.
The objective of the Bonny Island Marathon is to promote the sports-tourism sector of the Bonny Kingdom. It was also set to discover and export next generation Athletes, and be a platform known for global reputation in sports. It will portray Bonny Island to the global community as a safe, peaceful and emerging metropolitan city to live and invest in – beyond oil and gas.
Some of the achievements made by the Bonny Island Marathon over the past years include growing to over 10,000 participants from across 23 states in Nigeria; awarded over $10,000 in awards and prizes; recorded zero casualty across four successful editions; got featured on Africa Sport On by Supersports and currently on course for fifth edition.
The official theme for this year’s Bonny Island Marathon is “#Run4Nigeria”. The campaign spotlights the prospects surrounding Nigeria’s polity, hopes amidst challenges, and the desire for better leadership. It is intended to promote civic responsibility, political consciousness among young people, and the clamor to include young people in governance.
The Project Lead Boma Halliday also announced the continued partnership and collaboration with Outsaurce PEP as the official Marketing and Communications Agency Partner for the fifth year running.
“We are excited about the opportunity to be part of the vision and the privilege to amplify the work and impact of the Bonny Island Marathon,” said Owen Shedrack, CEO & Lead, Outsaurce PEP on the announcement. It’s been an interesting journey. This year we are looking to augment the existing works, increase marketing efforts and tell the stories that matter in line with the theme about who we are as a people, and why Nigeria is all we’ve got, and as young people, we have to care about it. He added.
The Bonny Island Marathon is working hard to welcome international runners with existing conversations with embassies, sports development agencies and stakeholders to get a recognized status.
Every year, the Marathon season begins with a call for registration. Registration is open to the public, and for local and global athletes. Bonny Island Marathon has recorded over 10,000 participants in the last 4 years. Internal data shows that over 80% of participants are young people within 18 – 35 years with about 25% aggregate appearance for women across the years. Inclusion is at the core of our planning; from making provisions to accommodate participants with special needs to making necessary provisions for safety and security. There is also a special category for secondary school students from selected public and private schools who will run for a chance to win scholarships as a way to encourage their education pursuit while building up interests in sports.
The Bonny Island Marathon in its mandate to spotlight and promote promising local athletes, sponsored its 2019 Marathon Winner, Nengiye Wilcox for the second time to the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon and the 2022 Okpekpe 10K Road Race.
“We believe this presented him the opportunity to not only activate his career, but see competition from a professional and global perspective. At the Bonny Island Marathon, we believe in our people – young people with dreams of transforming our regional story with sports. We intend to multiply our impact that will produce many other Nengiye’s who will be competing at the global stage from the Bonny Kingdom.” Boma Halliday on the support given to Neginye by the Bonny Island Marathon.
Announcement of the Bonny Island Board of Advisors
The Bonny Island Marathon is looking to expand its cause beyond the Marathon activities while also paying attention to community stakeholders, influencers and sports development agencies. It became paramount to inaugurate an Advisory Board to oversee strategic areas in the project including necessary stakeholder engagements.
Members of the Board include: Eso Celestine Ugoeze, Sokari Tobin, Zainab Muhammad Garba, Baa Amaka, Venerable Peter Kiribo Blu-Attoni, Adams Nasiru Joseph, Luckyn Loveday Belema and Lady Edith Opuada-Hart.
The board members were drawn from across key industry verticals with relevant experiences and technical know-how spanning over twenty five years in their various fields.
We also want to appreciate and acknowledge the efforts from our team leads;Telema Halliday, Victor Banigo, Mirabel Joshua, Nada Pepple and the entire sub-team.
The Bonny Island Marathon project has been successful, thanks to the support from the King Dr. Edward Asimini Williams Dappa Pepple III, Perekule XI, CON. JP. Amanyanabo and Natural Ruler of Ancient Grand Bonny Kingdom, the Bonny Chief’s Council, the Bonny Local Government through the Chairman, Hon. Anengi Barasua D. Claude-Wilcox, the Bonny Youths Federation,our medical partners, Federal Road Safety Commission, security agencies, our Board, Shell Petroleum Development Company and Nigeria LNG Limited for being with, and supporting the Bonny Island Marathon.
Visit www.bonnyIslandMarathon.com.ng
Note that Registration starts 1st September and ends midnight 30th November, 2022
ADVERTISE WITH US. Call or send a Whatsapp message 08070950313
ADVERTISE WITH US. Call or send a Whatsapp message 08070950313
