How Adewole Adebayo is using marathon to inspire youth, national unity

Sports have become language, philosophy of life, social adhesive and powerful tool for uniting people especially the youth- around the timeless value of endurance. It is also the gateway to good health, to strong moral fibre, and even to national strength and security.

Only very few political elite and philanthropists understand that they could use Sports to empower the people around them for better and also strength unity, endurance and service.

This is an area of life, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, for years had chosen to better the life of the youths apart from numerous scholarship schemes, running into hundreds of millions. 

Adebayo embraces marathon sport to the level of establishing the Adebayo National Marathon, a sporting programme that has entered its second year.

At tail end of last year, he held the Adewole Adebayo 2025 Christmas Marathon in Ondo City, Ondo State, where male and female athletes from across Nigeria as well as other African countries including Ghana, Benin Republic and Burundi displayed strength, patience and discipline through their ruining skills and talents.

The competition saw Plateau runners dominate the podium. The winners went home with prize money of ₦2 million, ₦1 million and ₦500,000 for first, second and third places respectively. Consolation prizes of ₦50,000 each were also awarded to runners who finished between fourth and 10th positions.

The top finishers were identified as Giang James Boi, Francis James and Musa Bala Sati.

The marathon was held alongside the Queen Lilian Adebayo Health Walk, during which the top 10 participants received ₦100,000 each as encouragement.

Speaking on the event, the Organising Chairman of the marathon, Omoyele Sowore, said the competition did not attract the level of international participation envisaged by the organisers. He attributed this to late publicity, noting that better and earlier promotion would have drawn more elite foreign athletes, especially given the attractive prize money on offer.

Sowore added that while the marathon has been officially recognised and certified, there were logistical shortcomings, particularly the absence of water at some designated water points along the route. He also suggested that prize money should be increased to attract top international runners, noting that elite athletes, especially from Kenya, typically compete for much higher rewards.

“If we want this marathon to become truly international, the prize must reflect global standards. Anyone running 15 kilometres should not be earning less than ₦5 million, and international runners will not accept anything less than $20,000,” he said.

Speaking on the marathon competition, Adebayo, said the marathon was designed to empower young people and help them maximise their potential. He encouraged participants to remain focused on meaningful pursuits that would positively impact their lives and communities.

For Adebayo, success is simply endurance made visible. To succeed, you must plan. You must focus. You must work hard. You must project beyond the present moment. You must prepare for what lies ahead, compete with integrity, and endure with grace. This is true for individuals, and it is equally true for nations. Just as people run their personal races, companies run theirs, communities run theirs, and countries do the same. Development, in its truest form, is not a sprint. It is a marathon.

Though he is deeply involved in numerous sports—judo, basketball, boxing, wrestling, swimming—today, the marathon carries the message. Tomorrow, another discipline may take the stage. What remains constant is the spirit: sportsmanship, discipline, unity, and collective purpose. A nation of sportspeople, Adebayo insists, is an active nation. Sport is the gateway to good health, to strong moral fibre, and even to national strength and security.
Begin with the young, and you shape the future. To wake up every morning and train for a marathon scheduled a year away is to learn commitment, patience, and self-belief. It is to understand delayed gratification and to become part of a global community bound by effort, respect, and resilience.

Even the land itself seems to conspire with this vision. Ondo City, with its notable elevation, echoes the highlands that have produced some of the world’s greatest long-distance runners. Just a few kilometres from surrounding ranges, the terrain naturally invites endurance and rewards discipline. The soil, the air, the incline—all seem to whisper the same message: keep going.

In Ondo, through the vision of one man, the marathon has become more than a race. It has become a bridge—between people and purpose, privilege and service, strength and compassion. It is a bridge between today’s disciplined effort and tomorrow’s united nation, steadily running toward a future shaped not by haste, but by endurance.