Saturday, 2 February 2019

Ethiopians sweep medals at 2019 Lagos City Marathon

By Akeem Lawal
Ethiopian athletes Suntayahu Legese and Dinke Meseret dominated the 2019 Access Bank Lagos City Marathon by emerging winners of the male and female events. 


Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com  reports that the competition which started at 6.25 a.m at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, featured no fewer than 20,000 runners from 58 countries.


Legese came first in the male category in a time of 02:17:28 hours to claim the $50,000 prize, ahead of Kenya duo of Joshua Kipkorir (02:18:16hrs) and William Yegon (02:19:04hrs), who placed second and third respectively at the IAAF Bronze Label race.


The Ethiopians made a clean sweep of the female category with Dinke Meseret finishing first in a time of 02:48:02hrs ahead of Alemnesh Herepa (02:49:05hrs) and Kebena Chala (02:49:09hrs), who were second and third respectively.


The winners in both categories of the 42km race went home with a whooping sum of $50,000, the second placed athletes won $40,000, while the bronze medalists got $30,000 each.

Meanwhile, Gideon Goyet, who ended the race in 15th place overall in 02:21:11hrs, was Nigeria’s best male performer, while Deborah Pam emerge the country’s best performer in the female event after she placed sixth in 02:52:59hrs. Both won the Nigerian prize of N3m, a brand new Kia Rio salon car courtesy of Kia Motors and a plot of land in Lagos. 


Mwanta Pam Ilya emerged the second Nigerian male athlete to cross the finish line at a time of 02:32:24hrs, while Tokbe Christopher Gwet came third with a time 02:33:45hrs. Olude Fadekemi Florence finished second in the Nigerian race with the time of 02:56:39hrs, while Powar Elizabeth Nuhu came third with a time of 03:01:27hrs. The second and third athletes in both categories got the sum of N2m and N1m respectively. 

All athletes who participated in the 4th edition of the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon were presented with medals.

Award wining artists, Oladapo Oyebanjo, popularly known as D’banj, Olamide and fast rising Teniola Apata better known as Teni The Entertainer were on ground to thrill fans and athletes at Eko Atlantic, the finish point of the Marathon. 


Lagos State Governor, Akinkunmi Ambode and the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung were among the dignitaries present at the event. 








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