• Rite Foods reward 11-year-old runner with N250, 000
Femi Solaja
As expected, it was a clean sweep for Kenyan athletes at the maiden edition of Airtel/Ijebu 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 1hr: 02mins: 36secs to win the 21km race.
Kiplimo countryman, Rhonza Kilimo followed with 1: 02: 57 and another Kenyan, Timothy Ronoh raced to the finish 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.
Gebaynesh Ayele came second while Beyenu Degefa was third in 1:10:52 and 1:11:02 respectively.
The first Ijebu man to finish the race was Femi Olusanya, a police officer from Ijebu Ode who promised to fight for the top five 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 T in Ijebu Ode, 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 official beverage of the race, Seleem Adegbuwa, said they are looking forward to making it better next year while donating N250,000 for the 11-year-old girl who finished 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 finish 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 DNA in 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 finishing 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..
