Address To The Media From Millennium Marathon 2022 By Mrs. Catherine Morton, Race Director

Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports, Mrs Yang Yang, Managing Director of ZONDA TEC, our Brand Partner, Mr. Opoku Danquah, Director of GNPC, our Mayor and Manager of the Greater Accra City, Hon Elizabeth Sackey, President of the Ghana Olympic Committee, Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the All African Games, CEO of the Ghana Athletics Association, CEO of the National Lotteries Authority, Special Guests, Sponsors, Invited Guests, Members of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Millennium Marathon Sports Ltd extends its warmest compliments and sincere thanks to you all for gracing this occasion. Aside the enormous health benefits that accrue to the participants, sports is a great unifier.

It knows no bounds as it transcends generations, backgrounds, cultures, genders, races, borders, etc. So, for us at the Millennium Marathon Sports Ltd, this is a great avenue to promote both.

The Millennium Half Marathon was first launched in 2015 and has since been hosted each year in Accra. It has become a major international race that attracts participation from thousands of Ghanaians and foreigners.

Since inception, over 50,000 participants from more than 20 countries worldwide have taken part in the marathon. Starting from a collaboration with the then Race Director, Haile Gebrselassie, one of the greatest and finest runner of all time, this marathon has grown immensely to an epic and iconic status; the biggest and only internationally certified race in Ghana. In the past 2 years the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions made it impossible to host the event. So, we are delighted that in recent times vaccines and enhanced health and safety protocols have brought the situation under control. Indeed we have watched closely developments and directives from world and local governing bodies in sports and precedence of leading marathons around the world with regards to the start of in person races.

We will be outlining our safety protocols for this on our website and registration centres. We will educate all runners of these measures and work to ensure a safe environment for the run.

This year we are proud to announce our partnership with the Ghana Athletic Association (GAA) in further establishing our aim of being the pace setters in Marathon running in Ghana. The Millennium Marathon has been certified as the first Gold Label Road Race in Ghana. Our goal is to work together with the GAA to achieve, in the near future, a World athletics labelled race status.

In order to achieve this objective, we would need the full support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, the Security Services, the Sanitation Ministry, and of course our cherished sponsors and stakeholders. A world labelled road race status would have significant impact not just for Ghana sports but for tourism and commerce.

Renowned races like the London and Boston Marathons have and continue to be modelled examples of how far we can reach if we work hard. Preparations are ongoing to start our regional races once again this year with plans to host 3 Zonal Races in the Northern, Ashanti and Greater Accra Region.

These races serve as preparatory and qualifying races for the Ghanaian elite field. The dates for these races will be announced by the end of the month. PRIZE MONEY First Prize -15,000 2nd Prize – 8,000 3rd Prize – 5,000 WIN A CAR RAFFLE Together with our partners, Japan Motors and the National Lottery Authority, there will be a special WIN A CAR raffle draw to reward on lucky participant. To make it exciting for everyone, the draw is open to all those who are able to complete the marathon. When you cross the finish line, you qualify to enter the chance to win this Brand New car KICKS.

NLA will run the raffle to draw the one lucky winner. All you have to do is cross the finish line. At the Millennium Marathon Sports Limited, our mission continues to be the creation of an annual world class sports and tourist event alongside a fun and health program for Ghana, which will bring family and community together. Thank you to our sponsors and partners, thank you to the special guests and the authorities present here today and thank you all for coming.

I want to Thank our Sponsors ZONDA TEC GNPC INTERPLAST VERNA WATER PAPAYE NLA MOVINPICK GARMIN MTN B5 PLUS UNILEVER IPMC KRIF Gh GTV DDP GOIL Ethiopian Airlines ALLIANZ INSURANCE BLUE SKIES EMIRATES MELCOM AMS BURGER KING KINGDOM BOOKS ZOOMLION GHANA GAS KFC VRA GHANA POLICE AMA

Source Millennium Marathon Sports Ltd