Kenyan Wins At The 9th Obudu mountain race

By Jude Adie

Again for the ninth edition of the Obudu Mountain Race, no Nigerian was able to win the title of the competition.

Kenyan Rono Philemon Saturday won the male category beating the defending Champion, Abebe Dinkessa of Ethiopia in 1 hour 43 minutes.  The First Nigerian male to brace the tape was Cletus Eyo while the first Nigerian female to brace the tape was Deborah Pam from Plateau State.

The Ethiopian, who won the 8th edition of the race in 2012, came second in the 2013 edition with a time of 1 hour 57 minutes in the male category of the race.

Geoffrey Kusuro of Uganda, returned with a time of 1 hour 2 minutes and 8 seconds to pick the third slot in the race.

In the female category, it was an Ethiopian affair as Yalew Genet clocked 58:55 to win the race while her compatriot Selam Abere (59:46 secs) to pick the second spot.

Bertha Afera also of Ethiopia came third in the female category returning with a time of 1 hour in the main race which was 13 klm for men and 9.64 klm for women at the Obudu Mountain Resort.

Participants were drawn from Nigeria Ethiopia; Uganda; Eritrea; Kenya; South Africa; the United Kingdom; the US; and Italy.

A total of $280,000 (about N45 million) were won in the races which also drew athletes from the media, and the children category.

Ben Dubois of Australia won the maiden edition of the race Nov. 27, 2013 while Nigeria’s Danjuma  Kopkuddi came second.

Anna Pitchrtova of the Czech Republic won in the female category while Nigeria’s Laraba Joseph came second in the maiden edition of the race.

Abebe Dinkesa of Ethiopia won the male category of the race in 2012 while his compatriot, Etenesh Neda won in the female category.

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