TheCable

The organisers of Lagos Access Marathon 2018 are yet to pay the award money won by foreign athletes, three months after the event.

Mary Fantahun, an Ethiopian official, said while international athletes were being owed, all Nigerian participants were paid their prize money just one month after the competition.

Fantahun described the development as wickedness and the “height of injustice”.

She said: “There is nowhere in the world where athletes prize money have been withheld more than three months after the competition.”

“All the foreign athletes have concluded that it is wicked and height of injustice on the part of the organisers of Lagos Access Marathon to pay their Nigerian athletes because they are their citizens.”

In a telephone conversation with TheCable, Bukola Olopade, organiser of Lagos Access Marathon, explained the reason for the delay in paying the foreign athletes’ prize money.

“The situation is different. It is totally different situation for foreign athletes,” Olopade told TheCable.

“It’s not a big deal and that’s the way it’s done all over the world because we have to wait for test results done before paying prize money.

“No one gets paid till after the tests results are done and we just got them just last week. This is the standard rule all over.

“Nigerian athletes were paid in naira and not foreign currency where we will need CBN’s approval which we just got.

“We approached CBN so as to get their rates which is more economical for us and payment will start on Wednesday.”