Mariama T. Jallow, winner of the 10km marathon in St. Louis has expressed delight of her conquering feat in Senegal.

The up-and-coming runner topped the scale beating off competition from the host country's athletes in a cold windy marathon. Finishing on a high with a remarkable timing of 36.56 minutes in the women's race, the dazzling ace is joyous of her new height.

"I'm happy and god be praised and I say a big thanks to my parents. I feel proud of what I have achieved. Jallow said beaming, displaying an immaculate set of teeth - a smile that soon fade away when quizzed on the state of the racing track and climatic condition which she said counted little and thus didn't pause threat to her winning instinct.

"It was extremely cold and it was even raining. It did not affect me anyway. And I did my best" Mariama added, during an interview putting her winning goodies enthusiastically on display for camera snaps as the above picture shows.

The emerging athlete and male counterpart Lamin Sanneh came on for an avalanche of praises from sports ministry, National Sports council and Gambia Athletics Association bosses in a conveyed press conference held at the Independence stadium shortly after their arrival on Monday evening.

Sanneh settled for a fourth place in the men's race while Mariama pocketed CFA 1.000.000 with a bag of rice and a bag of Sugar and a host of other stuffs.

The sports ministry backing the feat, attained by the duo athlete, promises, as Malang Jassey Deputy PS for sports puts it, to give them a "proper handshake".

Athletics' President Dodou Capi Joof tagged 2012 year as the 'best' for the sport he heads, citing the ground breaking records in Olympics, all Africa games and others.

Summing up his speech, Capi who doubles as a juror at Confederation of African Athletics, pleaded to the sports ministry for equal consideration to be given to athletics in the share of the nation's cake.