Road Running Takes Centre Stage In Three Nigerian Cities On Saturday

Nigeria will stage an unprecedented three-city road-racing showcase on Saturday, with Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt hosting separate events on courses measured to World Athletics standards.

The simultaneous staging of the Lagos Women Run, PremiumTrust Bank Abuja City International Half Marathon and Port Harcourt International Marathon highlights the growing popularity of road running in the country, but also exposes the absence of a coordinated national structure to develop the discipline.

Lagos will host the annual Lagos Women Run, a 10km race scheduled to start at 6am from Tafawa Balewa Square and finish at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan.

In Abuja, the PremiumTrust Bank Abuja City International Half Marathon will feature a race over 21km, with the overall elite winner set to receive $8,000. The second and third-placed finishers will earn $6,000 and $5,000 respectively, while prizes from fourth to eighth place range from $4,000 to $500.

A separate Nigerian category will offer ₦2 million to the winner, ₦1.5 million to the runner-up and ₦1 million to third place, with prizes from fourth to eighth ranging from ₦500,000 to ₦50,000.

Port Harcourt will stage the Port Harcourt International Marathon, tagged The Green Race 2026, featuring 21km and 5km Para races. Organisers say 20 runners will receive prizes under the event’s slogan, ‘Everybody Wins’.

However, the number of races taking place on Saturday does not yet translate into the standard required to put Nigerian road races and distance runners on the World Athletics rankings.

Nigeria currently has only two World Athletics label road races: the Okpekpe 10km Road Race and the Lagos City Marathon.

Okpekpe was the first Nigerian road race to have its course measured by a World Athletics-accredited course measurer and the first in the country to receive label status.

World Athletics requires a minimum of three races of the standard of Okpekpe and the Lagos City Marathon for Nigerian road races and distance runners to qualify for ranking consideration. With only two label races, Nigeria falls short of that requirement.

Consequently, no Nigerian road race or Nigerian distance runner is currently ranked by World Athletics.

Saturday’s events demonstrate that Nigeria has the capacity to stage more road races across different cities. What remains missing is a national framework to connect them.

There is no coordinated national road-race calendar, ranking system or development programme linking the events. The races will operate independently, without a shared points system or an established pathway for Nigerian distance runners to progress from domestic competitions to the international stage.

Despite the growing activity, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the National Sports Commission have yet to announce a coordinated road-running programme, leaving individual organisers to drive the events and manage their development.