Ghana’s most loved telecommunications brand has started painting the country beautifully on the world marathon map as part of the Company’s effort to promote the country internationally and help improve her domestic and foreign tourism earnings through sports.

Lucy Quist, Managing Director of the headline sponsor says that the innovative instinct of the company is not limited to telecommunication business but extends to the exploration and development of individuals, communities, nations and big visions.

“With the first edition of Millennium Marathon in Ghana, Airtel Ghana wishes to boldly place the country on the international marathon map in Airtel’s colours with a purpose of attracting domestic and international sports tourists to Accra among others,” she said.

According to her, soccer is popular in Ghana and the country is famous all over the world for it, but, not for marathons.“Airtel Ghana is thus simply unearthing Ghana’s enormous international marathon and sports tourism potentials for the benefit of all by sponsoring this project,” she emphasized.

The Accra Millennium Marathon which will take place on Saturday, September 5, will see a 5km run for non-professional athletes and the 21km run for professional athletes who will be vying for the ultimate trophy.

It would cover a distance of 21km from the Independence Square through the Labadi beach road along the Atlantic Ocean and back to the starting point via the National theatre. The Marathon would be run by thousands of participants both locally and internationally including Africa’s finest ever runner, Haile Gebreselassie.

On his arrival in Accra for the event launch, Mr Gebreselassie, the International Ambassador of Accra Millennium Marathon said because Ghana was peaceful and a stable country many international runners and tourists would like to come back each year to take part in the marathon.

On her part,Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, said the upcoming marathon meant a lot to the Ministry since the race and its side attractions would boost Ghana’s economy in terms of trade and tourism. “The event was likely to help the country’s tour operators due to the numbers of international runners who would take part,” she said.

The two-phase project organized by the Millennium Marathon Sports Ltd (MMSL) in partnership with the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) seeks to pull over 15,000 runners and thousands of spectators to its running routes in Accra.

In the first phase, highly patronized regional marathons were run across the 9 regional capitals covering a distance of 10.5km.

As a socially responsible company, Airtel Ghana has shown tremendous support to different sports activities since its inception in 1998. Airtel Rising Stars is one of the company’s flagship projects. It is a grassroots initiative that seeks to unearth, train and position local football talents.

Airtel’s leadership is highly acknowledged through the services it launches and through its direct involvement with activities that deliver high social impact.