Posted by Vanguard on
Nigerian winners of the first Obudu Mountain Race held last year at the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State yesterday in Lagos have collected their cash awards.
Nigerian winners of the first Obudu Mountain Race held last year at the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State yesterday in Lagos have collected their cash awards.
At a brief but impressive ceremony held inside the secretariat of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN), the winners, three males and two females got over $5, 000 for their front-running efforts in Obudu.
Top on the list of the cash winners is Plateau State-born Danjuma Kopkuddi who not only emerged the best Nigerian male runner in the race but also the race's overall second best (48.56.28) behind Australia's Dubois Ben who came first.
Kopkudi collected $22,000 cash for his feat while Gyang Danjuma (51:03.87), who emerged the fifth overall best as well as the second best Nigerian runner collected $5000 with Nengak Amos, the third best Nigerian going home with $1000.
For the female, Laraba Joseph was rewarded with $1000 as the second best female runner while Cecilia Cyril got $500 as the third best.
Making the presentation of the cash awards, William Archibong, head of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the championship enjoined the athletes to spend their cash awards prudently and revealed the Cross River State's commitment to continued sponsorship of the mountain race.
Archibong also revealed the reason for the delay in paying the winners their cash prizes.
'As an international competition, all winners had to undergo doping control and I am happy to announce that all the dope tests conducted came out negative," he said.
In her own remarks, AFN scribe, former national Handball star, Maria Worphil thanked the Cross River government under the dynamic leadership of Governor Donald Duke for sponsoring the race and like Oliver Twist pleaded for more support for the programmes of her federation.