The 2026 Mara­bel­la Mile and Re­lay Fes­ti­val is set to con­tin­ue the resur­gence of one of South Trinidad’s trea­sured road races on Jan­u­ary 18 from 2 pm.

The ‘Mile’ a col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion and the TECU Cred­it Union Co­op­er­a­tive So­ci­ety Lim­it­ed, was re­vived in Jan­u­ary 2025 af­ter a 30 year hia­tus, and the 2026 edi­tion launched at the San Fer­nan­do City Hall on Tues­day morn­ing.

The race’s launch re­ceived sup­port from Na­tion­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Ath­let­ics As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (NAAATT) pres­i­dent Ephraim Ser­rette, T&T As­so­ci­a­tion of Mas­ters Ath­let­ics (TTA­MA) pres­i­dent Shel­don Ma­son, Olympian and World cham­pi­on Machel Ce­de­nio, road-run­ning ace Nicholas Ro­many, and box­er Tiana Guy among oth­ers.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris says the road race aligns with the city’s de­vel­op­men­tal pol­i­cy, which fo­cus­es on sport, tourism, the arts, cul­ture and ed­u­ca­tion.

This year’s race fea­tures Un­der-15, U-17, U-20 and Open di­vi­sions as well as mas­ters cat­e­gories for ath­letes 40 to 49, 50 to 59 and 60 plus

Chair­man of the Coun­cil’s Sports Al­der­man Daniel Dook­ie re­vealed that the race will fea­ture eq­ui­ty in the prize struc­ture

“Both male and fe­male ath­letes will be re­ceiv­ing the same cash prizes,” Dook­ie said. “The win­ner of both will re­ceive $1,200, sec­ond place $900, third place $700, fourth place $500, fifth place $400, and sixth place $300.”

NAAATT pres­i­dent Ser­rette con­grat­u­lat­ed both the City of San Fer­nan­do and TECU for their ad­di­tion to the road rac­ing cal­en­dar.

“Just yes­ter­day I was look­ing at the sched­ule for Jan­u­ary, and it is ful­ly booked, and I was hap­py to see men­tioned in that sched­ule the TECU Mara­bel­la Mile, so we are hap­py to be on board to sup­port and sanc­tion such an event,” said Ser­rette said. “A lot of peo­ple are tak­ing part in these events, and we are hap­py to see that we have an ac­tive so­ci­ety.”

Ro­many said the race be­ing this this ear­ly in the year, ticks all the right box­es.

“Right now is a re­al­ly good time for this one mile see­ing that the track sea­son is back open, a one mile is some­thing per­fect for ath­letes, I look for­ward to tak­ing part and do­ing my best, prob­a­bly run­ning a per­son­al best in the one mile. It will help pre­pare me for the 1,500 and the 5,000 me­tres, and I look for­ward to this event.” Ro­many said.

The Mara­bel­la Mile will start at TECU Cred­it Union’s Mara­bel­la of­fices at 2 pm.

Pre-reg­is­tra­tion is on­go­ing, and in­ter­est­ed ath­letes can con­tact Kristy Pierre-Cromwell at 321-7212 or Al­der­man Daniel Dook­ie at 688-8990.