Since its creation 7 years ago, Inter-Lebanon Road Running & Athletics Club has attained the position of the foremost athletics club in Lebanon. At the Clubs’ Championship in August, 2010 it was the overall leader, achieving the highest combined score (men & women).

Inter-Lebanon led by far in the women’s events and was a solid second in the men’s (the Lebanese Army’s leadership in the men’s events remains uncontested).

The club made its debut back in 2003, with the modest idea of organizing few road races in Lebanon for the club’s founders and friends. At that time, well-organized road races were not available in Lebanon. However, very soon after, Inter-Lebanon’s pioneers sensed the vacuum in professional club management and the consequent frustration of the track & field community in general and athletes in particular. This led to our involvement in the trickier but interesting world of track & field.

Choosing to fight what looks like an uphill battle, Inter-Lebanon directorate decided to take on the challenge of creating a professional and efficient environment in road racing and track & field in Lebanon, thus giving hope to passionate athletes who can now believe that their dreams can come true.

Given the inability of the Lebanese Athletics Federation to plan, build and finance a solid national team structure independent from the clubs, and in the absence of their long term strategy, Inter-Lebanon invested its resources in creating an alternative solution. This solution relies on attracting the largest number of talented athletes to the club which will act as the de facto “underground” Lebanese national team.

This strategy was implemented in 2010 and has so far been successful. A large number of national record holders have signed up with Inter-Lebanon. Several gifted athletes of various ages are also scattered among a number of other clubs. Hopefully these athletes will be convinced that the future of track & field in Lebanon will be secured by professionalism, planning, adequate training, and incentive programs etc. The alternative remains, of course, in the hands of the Federation which can decide to thoroughly re-think its role and build a convincing strategy which can be met with proper financing.

Away from political intrigues, Inter-Lebanon is cutting its way through an inert establishment which has shown signs of serious exasperation towards our club’s style and goal. 

Please find below an executive analysis and summary of the performance of Inter-Lebanon so far:

Road Racing:

• Beirut Marathon (42.195K) - Women’ first place (Lebanese) in each of the 7 editions
  - 4 times Marie el Amm (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008) - 3 times Maria Pia Nehme (2005, 2007, 2009) - The women’s 2nd and 3rd places have always been Inter-Lebanon athletes
• Inter-Lebanon athletes broke the national marathon record 7 times in 7 years (4 times Marie el Amm and 3 times Maria Pia Nehme)
• Current national marathon women’s record held by an Inter-Lebanon athlete (Maria Pia Nehme)
• Current national half-marathon (21.1K) women’s record held by an Inter-Lebanon athlete (Maria Pia Nehme) – broken twice in 2006 & 2007
• Inter-Lebanon organized 47 road races over the past seven years

Track & field:
Inter-Lebanon athletes broke and still hold the following national records

• 3000m outdoor (Maria Pia Nehme –  broken twice in 2007& 2008)
• 5000m outdoor (Maria Pia Nehme - 2007)
• 10000m indoor (Maria Pia Nehme- 2007)
• 3000m indoor (Maria Pia Nehme - 2008)
• 60m indoor (Gretta Taslakian - broken three times in 2010)
• 400m outdoor (Gretta Taslakian - 2010)
• 100m outdoor (Gretta Taslakian - 2010)
• Javelin (Janet Said - 2010)
• Hammer throw (Abdallah Shaheen - broken twice in 2010)

An Inter-Lebanon athlete established and still holds the 400m indoor national record (Mirvat Hamzeh - 2010).

Additionally, in 2010 Inter-Lebanon succeeded in attracting and signing on elite athletes who are current national record holders, such as:

• Jean-Claude Rabbath current record holder of the indoor and outdoor high jump (Asian games gold medalist in 2006 and Asian indoor bronze medalist in 2010 as an Inter-Lebanon athlete)
• Mirvat Hamzeh current record holder of the 800m & 1500m distances and part of the 4x400m record holding team
• Layla Karhani current record holder of the outdoor shot put

In 2010 the club enrolled a total of 40 elite athletes. Some of the new younger recruits represent credible and serious potential athletic abilities, for example Diala el Khazen, Fatima Dandan, Mohamad Hannouf, Ali Saleh, and Gabriel Salibi, among others. We are fully committed to nurturing these abilities and providing adequate planning and training.

Inter-Lebanon’s performance in 2010 can be summarized as follows:

1. Eight national senior records broken so far, compared to 2 senior records by all the other clubs combined (Hussein Awadah, Army Club, over the half-marathon distance and Ahmad Hazer, Ansar Club, over the 60m hurdles indoor).

2. Jean-Claude Rabbath was the high jump bronze medalist in the Asian Indoor Championship. No other Arab or Regional title or medal was won by any other athlete from any of the other 16 clubs.

3. Inter-Lebanon won the 2nd largest number of medals at the Individual Championship (1st in women’s count, 2nd in men’s count, and 2nd overall).

4. Inter-Lebanon was 1st in number of points at the Clubs’ Championship (1st in women’s count, 2nd in men’s count, and 1st overall).

5. Inter-Lebanon organized and financed 3 road races in 2010 so far: the Internal Security Forces half-marathon; Al-Bayroutya, an exclusive women’s 5K race in down town Beirut; and the Bickfaya 7K Flowers Race.

Our 2011 challenge will be on the one hand to attract more athletes having the right stuff (passion, talent, discipline and spirit) and on the other hand to scout all Lebanese regions for young promising talent. Our long term strategy is to lift athletics in Lebanon to a level at least comparable to the level of Lebanese basketball …and hopefully to win an Olympic medal and/or a world championship one day!!

The training, physiotherapy, equipment, apparel, vitamins, training camps and competitions in the USA, Romania, Turkey, Germany, and incentive programs all financed by Inter-Lebanon, have proven to be instrumental in the good performance of our athletes. These activities have necessitated a substantial financial outlay, especially in 2010. Our annual budget in 2010 will exceed USD 230,000.

The club has had many corporate partners in the past, such as Medgulf, Bankers, Libano-Francaise, Fast Mondial, Casino du Liban, Central Bank of Lebanon. The Ministry of Youth and Sports has also provided Inter-Lebanon with much needed financial support twice in the past, and we do hope that such support will continue on an annual basis. It is with much gratitude that we thank our past and present contributors, including the Ministry of Youth & Sports. However, in 2010 only 2 partners offered a contribution, namely Central Bank of Lebanon and Selim Mouzannar (jeweler), and the President of Inter-Lebanon who has been so far the largest contributor to the expenses.

Inter-Lebanon is evolving into a solid institution, and such an evolution necessitates an institutionalized financing system which does not rely on the will of one person. Fund-raising ideas are being debated internally such as: a book of athletes photos to be sold in libraries, a catwalk organized with the athletes playing models for a night, a donors’ fund-raising dinner….and last, but not least, to connect 2 groups of donors to Inter-Lebanon: a philanthropic group and a corporate group in search of exposure and image building.