Press Release - Barbados Marathon - 7/13/15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
            
                Run Barbados Marathon Series returns
			  
A new state of the art time system is among the plans that the organizers 
for the 2015 Run Barbados Marathon Series will put in place to rebrand the 
event.

During Friday morning's launch of the event, chief executive officer of 
Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) Williams Griffith announced that this 
year's event would be spearheaded by husband and wife team Zary and 
Kristine Evelyn of Island Races who are responsible for organizing the 
successful and well-known Barbados Open Water Festival along with Peter 
Gibbs.

Director of Run Barbados Zary Evelyn explained that bringing back the 
marathon, which has been absent for three years, should play a major role 
in boosting the event which the BTMI is seeking to rebrand and rejuvenate 
for 2015 and beyond.

"It is our belief that the marathon is the key to any road race series and 
we did not want Barbados to be left out of that. So we thought with good 
marketing and promotion Barbados can once again be seen as a top 
destination for marathons. It is on the calendar for most of the other run 
series around the Caribbean, so that being the case we didn't want Barbados 
to be left out. We want to also give people many reasons to come to 
Barbados and having the marathon as part of the series will increase the 
profile of the series and widen the net of runners looking to come here," 
he said.

According to Evelyn the December 4 to 6 event is geared towards different 
age groups and they intend for it to be a family affair this year.

Griffith said he has given the experts the mandate to raise the profile of 
Run Barbados as a major sports tourism initiative. He explained that going 
forward one of their primary performance indicator would be the extent to 
which they were able to attract visitors to the island while bringing back 
a high level of spectatorship.

"We will be devising a number of ways through which to engage both 
Barbadians and visitors throughout the race weekend. Run Barbados has been 
a staple on our national calendar of events and a strong sports tourism 
brand for Barbados since its inception in 1983. Our intention is to 
rejuvenate this legacy brand at its core with a new business model.

"BTMI will support them [marketing experts] in the execution of global 
marketing efforts which will include promotion at international sporting 
events and leading sports publications. We also believe that we can 
increase our market share in the southern Caribbean and will be working 
through the Caribbean and Latin America to raise our profile in this 
region," Griffith said.

Six-time winner Hugh Jones of England has expressed interest for this 
year's event that will proceed with a Night Fun Mile that will start 
Friday, December 4 at 8 p.m. to facilitate greater participation among a 
wider number of age groups.

On Saturday afternoon the 10k and 5k will take place. On Sunday the grand 
finale will be both the full marathon and half marathon races. Persons 
wishing to participate can check the Run Barbados website or their Facebook 
page.


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