Accra, July 14, GNA - Winners of this year's 15 kilometre Under-15 Milo Marathon for the boys and girls divisions will each earn a record prize of two millions cedis in scholarship bursary in addition to Milo products, exercise books, certificates and a trophy.

The prize money, which is an increase of 150 per cent over last year's award is to motivate the young children into the sport. Mr Colin Taylor, Marketing Manager of Nestle Ghana Limited who disclosed this at a press conference in Accra on Thursday to launch this year's Milo Marathon scheduled for Saturday, September 24, said prize packages for this year's 42 kilometres marathon would also be attractive with prizes totalling more than a billion cedis.

He said the winners' package this time around would include fully connected Phones from Millicon Ghana limited, additional cash prizes from Stanbic Bank and 'fantastic' insurance cover from the State Insurance Corporation (SIC).

Mr Taylor said the winners for both the men and women's events would receive 1000 dollars as spending money each, an air ticket from KLM to participate in next year's Amsterdam Marathon, a trophy, Milo promotional items and a certificate of participation. He said in addition, KLM would provide a ticket for this year's young journalist of the year award to accompany the winners of the 2004 Milo Marathon to cover the event.

Me Taylor said Milo has been the largest sponsor of sports in the country, aside the government of Ghana for almost 20 years in various disciplines and promised that they will not rest on their laurels in this direction.

"Milo will at any point in time seize the opportunity to unearth talents in various sporting disciplines across the country for the government to make use of and the company see this as our biggest social responsibility to the government and other bodies" "Since 1984, a total of over seven billion cedis has been invested into sports development and this commitment will be continued strongly", Mr Taylor added.

He said the 15 Kilometre Under-15 event for the boys and girls divisions would start from the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex through the traditional routes and finish at the Dansoman Keep Fit Club. Mr Taylor said the Ghana Education Service (GES) has been given the responsibility of checking the ages of all participants to ensure that cheats do not cross the line.

He said the 42.2 kilometre mass sports event would as usual start from Nungua through the traditional routes and also finish at the Dansoman Keep Fit Club.

Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Deputy Minister of Education and Sports in a speech read for him, called on the prospective marathon runners to intensify their training and adequately prepare for the event. He said Milo has been a dependable partner of his Ministry as far as sports development and promotion is concerned.

The Deputy Minister said it is the hope that the cooperation between the Ministry and Nestle Ghana Limited and the Government will grow stronger in the years ahead for the benefit 'of our children's development and sports development in Ghana as a whole'.

Mr Norman Greensberg Williams, KLM Sales Manager for West Africa disclosed that this year, his company would provide two additional tickets for the winner of the young journalists award and a representative of the organisers to witness the Amsterdam Marathon. In the 21 years history of the Accra Marathon, Nestle has for the 19th time kept faith with the Dansoman Keep Fit Club, the organisers of the event, one of the biggest events in the West African sub region. Other sponsors are Stanbic Bank, Millicom Ghana Limited, operators of Buzz GSM, Latex Foam Company Limited, Dizengoff Limited and Kenya Airways.

The defending champions in the events are Athony Yin, 20, former student of Bompeh Secondary Technical of Takoradi for the men's category whilst Gladys Adomako of the Prisons Service won the Ladies event. 14 July 05