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Top Kenyan athletes, Abraham Kiptom and Rhoda Jepokorir , Saturday in Lagos, smiled home with the two top prizes as they won the international male and female categories respectively in the second edition of the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon which held in Nigeria’s commercial capital .
While Kiptom, who defended the title he won last year and Jepokorir, who was participating in the marathon for the first time, smiled home with $50,000 each as their prize money, the second and third winner went home with $40,000 and $30,000 respectively. Also, Philip Sharabutu defended the first Nigerian male title he won last year as he smiled home with N1million while Emmanuel Gyang came second.
A seven-year-old, Damilola Oluwaseun, became the highlight of Marathon when she completed 10km of the 42km race.
Oluwaseun, who joined the race at 32km which is at the end of Lekki Bridge, said she was elated to have run 10km.
“I feel happy that I was able to run the 10km, it was not easy but it was worth trying. It feels good,’’ she said.
No fewer than 64 foreign and 102 local elite athletes participated in the race that registered 55,000 runners from 27 countries, including Nigeria, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The race which started at the National Stadium, Lagos finished at the Eko Atlantic City where the prizes were handed over to the winners.
Speaking after emerging as the first female elite athlete to cross the finish line , Jepkhorir of Kenya, who was in the country for the first time, told NAN that she would not hesitate to marry a Nigerian if approached due to what she described as the kind nature of Nigerians.
“If a Nigerian man should ask for my hand in marriage, I will marry him because Nigerians are nice people.
“Nationality is no barrier, so far he is committed and caring, I will have no option,’’ she said.
She also said that she loved watching the duo of Nigerian actors, Aki and Pawpaw, saying that she was so attached to Nigeria.
“Aki and Pawpaw are my best actors in Nigeria, I have so much love for the Nigerian movie industry,’’ the runner said.
The athlete, who is visiting Nigeria for the first time, said that winning the race was a dream come through for her.
“The race has given me the opportunity to come to my dream country, I will come over and over again,’’ she said.
Meanwhile, Enefiok Udo-Obong, a gold medalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, has said that Nigerian long distance runners competing with the world’s best would help to improve their skills.
Udo-Obong made the assertion in an interview with NAN at the National Stadium, Surulere, the starting point of the 2017 42km Access Bank Lagos City Marathon.
“Apart from training and preparing to be a better athlete, you are expected to compete with others to evaluate yourself.
“So, we must compete with the best to get better as far as long distance race is concerned and also participate in more competitions to increase our profile in long distance races.
“Some people are always of the opinion that we have no business hosting Marathon because Nigerians are not marathoners but that is not true.
“Competitions of this magnitude are good for our sports development, good for the host city and also good for tourism development,’’ he said.
On the Lagos City Marathon, the gold medalist told NAN that there was a huge improvement in this year’s edition and commended the orgnisers for innovations.
“The organisers did a great job this year, a lot of improvement and the event was better organised and I hope they will not relent in the subsequent editions.
Source: NAN
