IAAF renews Okpekpe bronze label status

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has recertified the 
Okpekpe International 10km Road Race as a bronze label event.

This followed the successful organisation of the third edition of the hugely successful road race last year in Okpekpe, near Auchi in Edo State, where all required standards/criteria were met for the re-award of the label.

The certificate for the renewal was signed by the IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, to signify that the race does not only retain its status as the first road race in Nigeria to be granted a label status since 2008 when the IAAF started classification of road races, but also the only IAAF recognised road race in Nigeria in 2016.

It is also the only labelled road race listed on the IAAF calendar of road races in Africa for the first half of this year.

IAAF Road Race Label Events are races that the world governing body for the sport designates as one of the leading road races around the world.

The Labels are assessed and awarded each year after the race organisers must have applied to the IAAF for recognition, and show that their race can meet a number of criteria.

The classifications are gold, silver and bronze and all three categories require what the IAAF describes as an international elite field, that requires at least, five nations (four for Bronze) to be represented by runners with times faster than the IAAF’s guidelines.