1 December 2008
Lagos — The Ethiopian fairytale in the Obudu WC Mountain Race series continued to spin at weekend as four of the runners from that country finished in the top three positions, of the men and women's categories; two in each category.
Abebe Dinkesa ran a mind-boggling 41.45secs Saturday at the 4th edition of the event to win the $50,000 first prize money. He set a new course record in the process.
His compatriot, who happened to be the defending champion, Habtamu Fikadu Awash, though managed to improve on his winning time return of last year, could only come in third as the race witnessed a highly improved running standard.
In the 2007 edition, Awash's 42.50 record was good enough to make him champion. But this year, even with his slightly improved time return of 42.42, he had to go down the ladder of merit by two steps in the face of more qualitative opposition, one of them coming from his fellow Ethiopian.
Former junior cross country champion, Ugandan Kusuro Geoffrey who was favoured to finish in the top bracket of the race, did not disappoint bookmakers as he came in second. The two runners up, Awash and Geoffrey, got $20,000 and $9,000 prize money, respectively.
The meltdown for defending champions continued in the female category of the race as Rehima Kedir, who won the title last year had to content herself with the same position, third, that the defending male champion, Awash, was also relegated. She got to the finish line on the dot of 52.51.
However, Austrian Andrea Mayr lived up to expectation, winning the women title and the $50,000 prize money. Mayr, who is the 2008 World Mountain Running champion, had a scintillating race, which she crowned with a superb and flourishing finish, sprinting past her main adversary, Ethiopian Angelina Mutheu Mutuku with just 200m to the finish line. She clocked 51.14 secs as against 52.17secs of Mutuku.
2008 IAAF World Half Marathon silver medalist, Aselefech Merga Medessa of Ethiopia, who most people had expected to give Mayr a good fight, placed fourth. She therefore found herself outside the top-three juicy prize-money.
The star attraction of this year's edition was the children's race, which attracted kids from the neighbouring Obudu and Obanliku communities. The first three kids in both the male and female categories were rewarded handsomely with cash prizes and scholarships.
Dr Jide Josiah, the Second Vice-president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), believes that one day in future, one of those kids will beat all-comers to win the top prize.
Over 200 athletes took part in the race with 40 of them elite from outside the country.
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