By Dickson Jere
I have been inundated with calls, emails and texts asking for my thoughts on the continued differences between the Zambia Athletics (ZA) and organizers of marathons. I am glad that the differences have been resolved and the TotalEnergies Marathon will proceed as scheduled. This is not the first time that ZA and organizers of these marathons have been at loggerheads.
For starters, let me state that there is no law whatsoever in Zambia that stops anyone organizing marathons or fun runs as social events. You only need permission of the City Council and the police to clear your routes. However, if you want to have professional marathons that gets you into elite competition, you need the permission of ZA as a national sports federation mandated to manage such.
Here are few my pointers;
1. ZA must market itself aggressively so that these organizers of the marathons should find it compelling to work with ZA. The ZA stamp should be a “mark” of premiership of any event. More like a bureau of standard mark. Organizers will certainly partner with ZA with that mark of recognition without any fights.
2. Consonant to 1 above, ZA must have a national Calender of its approved marathons published every year. People will pick and choose which ones they will participate. Surely, those with serious intention of running, will choose the ZA approved activities. But you cannot stop social events.
3. ZA must go on membership drive. They need to convince these organizers of the marathons to join the area boards of ZA and become members. That is only way that these organizers will be regulated by ZA because they would have become members. I still don’t understand by the Lusaka Fitness Squad – one of the best organized club – not member of ZA. They need to be enticed to join ZA.
4. ZA must also concentrate its efforts in developing raw talents across the country. We need to see competition in Provinces and Districts where kids can be picked for elite sports. ZA must develop strong national teams for all ages for Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Africa Games and so on. These marathons are mainly taking place in Lusaka and Copperbelt. We need such events in Mongu, Chipata, Kasama, Mansa etc.
5. ZA must revive the other field sports such as high jump, long jump, javelin, discuss and all that have become extinct in Zambia. These marathons are mainly for fitness and not competition for those who wants to compete at international stage.
Finally, there is nothing wrong with having a lot of marathons. They are good for the health of the nation. They are good for prevention or non communicable diseases and so all. But there is need to put in place some guidelines regarding routes measurements, medical schemes and first aid, water points bays and generally safety precautions and measures. And that is where ZA can offer its professional advice and work with the organizers.
There is no need to fight!
We play social football without FAZ. We play social golf without ZGU. We fight in social boxing without ZBF. We social swim without ZASU. These federations only have mandate to deal with their clubs and membership. That is why they are only voted for by their members and not the public!
Dickson Jere -21/05/25
