Rotary Club International District 9141 and Steady Run Club have entered a partnership that would employ the Port Harcourt Marathon as a tool to raise awareness and also eliminate the scourge.
Speaking in Port Harcourt while unveiling the mini marathon, Rotary Club (Port Harcourt Cosmopolitan) President, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari and Steady Run Boss, Steady Idisi said the event with the theme ‘the Final Push Against Polio,’ will hold on November 24, 2018.
Semenitari said sport represented one of the platforms through which mass number of people could be reached for enlightenment and collaboration towards eradicating polio.
Disclosing that Nigeria has gone two years without any reported case of polio, Semenitari commended the media and sports journalists in particular for their enthusiasm and helping to use the sports platform as a means of fighting the scourge.
The former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) said only a polio-free country could look forward to producing great sportsmen and women that would bring honour and laurels to the country.
She commended Steady Run Club for consistently using its platform to help fight the polio scourge through mass mobilisation, while at the same time helping to keep people fit.
Explaining the decision to mebark on the programme, Idisi, who is an ambassador for the eradication of polio, said the need to create massive awareness and to finally put an end to polio gave birth to the partnership that would also help to engender mental and physical fitness.
He disclosed that there would be senior and junior categories for male and female runners, as well as the physically challenged that would battle for the various prizes at stake.
The race will cover a distance of 21 kilometres spanning through Aggrey Road to Artillery Junction and back to the starting point with such side attractions as martial arts, para-soccer, aerobics, dance for fitness and kickboxing, among others.
Source: G Sport
