The Nigeria Triathlon Union (NTU) has announced that the second edition of Cadbury Bourvita Duathlon Championship will hold at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos on Saturday, 7 December, 2019.
President of the NTU, Prince Wale Oladunjoye said during a media conference held in Lagos on Thursday that the Union is expecting participants from about 33 states in the country. He added that the one day competition will involve Run, Bike, Run at the end of which winners will receive various prize monies and gifts courtesy of Cadbury Nigeria Plc.
Speaking on the technical details of the event, Prince Oladunjoye said that 7 December will be a busy day at the nation’s sportscity in Surulere as activities for the Cadbury Bourvita Duathlon Championship will start as early as 6am with “route cleanup for pebbles to ensure a good ride for the athletes. By 7am, accreditation and distribution of racing numbers to all participants with course familiarisation holding by 8:30am while the competition starts by 9:30am. Awards and prize giving ceremony has been fixed for 3:30pm.”
Oladunjoye, a foremost sports administrator who was once a Senior Special Assistant on Grassroots Sports Development to ex Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola said that the duathlon tournament will be held in 9-13 years, 14-16 years and 17 -18 years which have been categorise as juniors, while there will be U-23 category (19-22 years) as well as 23 years and above which is the elite category.
The elite male and female athletes will cover the following distance: Run – 5km, Bike – 20kms, Run – 2.5kms. For the juniors, the distance is: Run -2.5kms, Bike -10kms, Run – 1.4kms. For the cadet, the distance to cover is: Run -1.0km, Bike -5km, Run -1.0km
“Cash prizes will be given to the very first three finishers in the elite category (men and women), while prizes will also be given to the top three finishers in the cadet and junior categories. Over N230, 000 cash prizes with another N100,000 as incentives for participants and products of Bournvita will be served all through these championship,” Oladunjoye said.
He applauded the sponsorship of the tournament by Cadbury Nigeria Plc as a motivation to help in exposing Nigerian young and elite athletes to top flight competitions.
“To Cadbury Nigeria Plc, we commend your courage and use this medium to call on other brands to take sports as viable Corporate Social Responsibility, for an investment in sports is an investment in the lives of many future talents and the nation,” he said.
To Frederick Mordi, Corporate and Government Affairs Manager, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, “the company is glad the tournament is gaining more traction among Nigerians going by the success of last year’s event. We, at Cadbury, are proud to be associated with this event, which is one of our brand touch points, where we try to connect with our consumers. Apart from sponsoring this Duathlon, we have used other platforms such as Nickfest and Bourn Factor competition, to bond with children. We believe the tourney will help expose some of the latent talents that we have in the country. Who knows, some of them may even represent Nigeria at some future international athletics events,” he concluded.
