The race which will cover a total distance of 450 kilometres will be flagged off from the National Stadium, Lagos, Nigeria and terminate in Abidjan {Cote d ‘Ivoire} on 19th Feb 2012.
The ECOWAS international cycling tour will go over four stages – Lagos-Cotonou; Cotonou-Lome; Ada-Accra and Abuaso-Abidjan. There will be three motorised transfers.
Each of the 16-member nations is to field a team of six cyclists and five accompanying officials.
There will be prizes and trophies for winners at the various stages of the race as well as the overall tour winner and team standing. There will also be prizes for sprints and the best young cyclist.
Mr Francis Njoguani, the Director of ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre explained that the staging of the second edition followed on the heels of the maiden competition held in 2009 that covered Lagos to Accra.
He explained that the race was initiated by ECOWAS heads of state to further the ECOWAS ideals of regional integration and the free movement of persons as a tool to actualise the ECOWAS vision 2020 of transforming from an ‘ECOWAS of states to an ECOWAS of people’.
According to him the maiden edition was successful and many more people have looked forward to the current edition.
The 2nd ECOWAS international cycling tour is being financed by the ECOWAS commission.
Mr Njoguani said that ECOWAS member states have been mandated to source sponsors for the leg of the race which passes through their respective countries.
He adds: “the amount involved in the sponsorship is big because it involves a huge logistics of moving more than 250 participate across the region.
No comments:
Post a Comment