MONROVIA – The Liberia Athletics Federation (LAF) has challenged the Liberia Marathon Trust (LMT) to provide evidence of any direct financial investment it made toward the development of athletics in Liberia beyond the prescribed US$1,500 licensing and sanctioning fee for the 2025 Liberia Marathon, insisting the payment was solely a regulatory requirement and not financial support for the Federation’s athlete development programme.
The Federation also announced that it has formally terminated its 14-year technical partnership with the Liberia Marathon Trust, citing what it described as the Trust’s failure to establish a sustainable high-performance athlete development pathway capable of producing competitive Liberian middle- and long-distance runners for national championships, continental competitions, and World Athletics-sanctioned events.
The assertions were contained in a statement titled “Setting the Record Straight,” in which LAF said its decision followed more than a decade of unsuccessful efforts to have the Marathon Trust implement a structured talent identification, athlete development, coaching, and performance pathway designed to strengthen Liberia’s track and field programme.
According to LAF, the collaboration began in 2011 after it endorsed an initiative by Liberia Marathon Trust founder Peter Harrington to organize road races and marathon competitions in Liberia. The Federation said it embraced the initiative because it viewed the annual marathon as an opportunity to identify endurance athletes, develop athleticism, and build a sustainable pipeline of elite middle- and long-distance runners capable of representing Liberia at regional and international competitions.
The Federation said the cornerstone of the partnership was its proposal for the Marathon Trust to identify twelve promising Liberian athletes—six male and six female—after each annual marathon and enroll them in a structured six-month high-performance training programme under the technical supervision of LAF.
According to the Federation, the programme was designed to improve aerobic capacity, cardiovascular endurance, lactate threshold, running economy, race tactics, conditioning, biomechanics, and performance periodization while preparing athletes to satisfy qualification standards established by World Athletics and the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).
“The Federation’s sole interest in collaborating with the Liberia Marathon Trust was to use the annual marathon as a talent identification platform and athlete development programme for competitive Liberian middle- and long-distance runners,” LAF stated.
The Federation also detailed its technical role in organizing the inaugural Liberia Marathon in 2011, noting that then Technical Director Atty. Frederick Bobby Krah, a certified World Athletics coach and technical official, served as Race Director and supervised the event’s technical planning, competition management, officiating standards, and race operations.
According to LAF, Krah required all registered participants to complete at least two months of supervised endurance training at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex before race day because organized marathon competition was still in its infancy in Liberia. The programme focused on developing athletic fitness, endurance, injury prevention, race preparedness, and athlete welfare while introducing participants to internationally recognized coaching methodologies.
LAF acknowledged that the Liberia Marathon Trust provided drinking water during weekend training sessions and transportation for Federation coaches. Transportation reimbursements and refreshments were also provided to volunteers, including coaches, technical officials, and course marshals assigned to support race-day operations.
Despite describing the inaugural marathon as successful from an operational standpoint, the Federation said repeated engagements with the Marathon Trust concerning implementation of the agreed athlete development programme failed to produce measurable outcomes or establish a sustainable high-performance system for Liberian distance runners.
According to LAF, it initially declined to provide technical support for the 2012 marathon because of the lack of progress. However, following interventions by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Liberia National Olympic Committee, the Federation resumed the partnership while continuing to advocate for a structured athlete development framework based on coaching, talent identification, competition exposure, and long-term athlete development principles.
The Federation said similar interventions by successive sports authorities enabled the collaboration to continue for more than a decade despite the absence of what it described as a comprehensive talent identification system, elite coaching programme, athlete monitoring framework, competition pathway, and performance development structure.
By 2025, LAF said it formally notified the Liberia Marathon Trust that it was terminating the partnership because the collaboration’s principal objective—the systematic development of elite Liberian middle- and long-distance athletes—had not been achieved.
Although the partnership had ended, the Federation said it agreed, at the request of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and other stakeholders, to provide only the technical licensing and sanctioning services required for the 2025 Liberia Marathon in accordance with World Athletics governance practices.
LAF confirmed receiving US$1,500 as the prescribed licensing and sanctioning fee before issuing authorization for the event.
However, the Federation emphasized that it did not deploy technical delegates, referees, certified course measurers, starters, judges, timekeepers, competition directors, or other technical officials responsible for ensuring compliance with World Athletics Competition Rules.
Consequently, LAF said it could not verify the technical integrity of the competition, certify the race course, ratify the official results, validate athletes’ performances for rankings or records, or recognize performances for qualification to sanctioned competitions.
The Federation further disputed public statements reportedly made during the marathon suggesting that the US$1,500 represented financial support for athletics development in Liberia.
LAF maintained that the payment was solely the prescribed licensing and sanctioning fee and challenged the Liberia Marathon Trust to provide documentary evidence of any additional financial contribution made directly to the Federation for athletics development, elite athlete preparation, coaching education, or track and field development programmes.
The Federation also clarified that transportation reimbursements and refreshments provided during training sessions and race-day operations were extended to all volunteers supporting the marathon and were not exclusive benefits provided to Liberia Athletics Federation coaches, technical officials, or administrators.
Despite ending the partnership, LAF reaffirmed its commitment to collaborating with organizations genuinely committed to advancing athletics, strengthening Liberia’s track and field ecosystem, promoting athletic excellence, and developing internationally competitive athletes.
The Federation reiterated its proposal for future marathon organizers to support a six-month high-performance training programme involving twelve elite Liberian athletes—six men and six women—and three qualified coaches, with funding to facilitate participation in World Athletics and Confederation of African Athletics competitions, subject to applicable qualification standards.
Concluding its statement, the Federation announced that it will no longer sanction, license, or certify future editions of the Liberia Marathon organized by the Liberia Marathon Trust, maintaining that the partnership failed to achieve its fundamental objective of building a sustainable pipeline of competitive Liberian distance runners.
