Kenyans Reign Supreme at Maiden Ijebu Half Marathon
Rite Foods reward 11-year-old runner with N250, 000
As expected, it was a clean sweep for Kenyan athletes at the maiden edition of Air tel/ Ije bu Heritage Half Marathon staged in Ijebu-Ode yesterday as the East Africans won the star prizes in the men and women’s events.
It was Hosea Kiplimo who breasted the tape ahead of others in 1 hr :02 m ins: 36secs to win the 21km race.
Kiplimo countryman, Rhonza Kilimo followed with 1: 02: 57 and another Kenyan, Timothy Ronoh raced to the Ànish line in 1: 02: 59 to place third.
The women’s race was also won by another Kenyan, Sandra Chebet in a time of 1hr: 10mins: 42secs but two Ethiopians broke the dominance of the Kenyans winning the second and third positions.
Ge bay ne sh Aye le came second while Beyenu Degefa was third in 1:10:52 and 1:11:02 respectively.
The Àrst Ijebu man to Ànish the race was Femi Olusanya, a police ocer from Ijebu Ode who promised to Àght for the top Àve positions in the next edition.
It was a shout of how come when an 11-year-old Abigael Ogunbowale completed the 21km race at the Dipo Dina Stadium.
Apart from the coach popularly known as Buka Tin Ije bu O de, nobody, including Abigael’s mother gave her a chance to complete the race.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Rite Foods, the producer of Bigi, the ocial beverage of the race, Seleem A deg buwa,saidt hey are looking forward to making it better next year while donating N250,000 for the 11-year-old girl who Ànished the race.
Speaking during the Prize presentation ceremony, Adegbuwa said it was a beauty to behold seeing such a girl compete with established stars and looks forward to seeing her performing better in subsequent edition of the competition.
“I really want to give kudos to all the athletes who started and Ànish the race, we are looking at making it better next year,” he pledged.
“As the son of the soil, been involved I will say it is a no brainer because it is our thing and it is really important that we bring event of these nature home, I mean world-class event like this.
“By DNAin Nigeria, we are good at sports, we just need to harness it so we can go international with it. I was not surprised today to see a 55-year-old and 11-year-old Ànishing the race, we are naturally gifted and we only just need to make sure the talents here are well coordinated.
“We intend to do more in sports with Abeokuta Marathon also coming up later in the year,” he concluded..