Kenyan athletes, John Muiruri Buru and Cheptoeck Careen have won the inaugural edition of the new Port Harcourt Mini Marathon in the male and female categories.
John Muiruri and Chepteock Careen both returned a time of one hour and nine seconds and one hour forty-five minutes to win the N1million cash prize for each category.
Over five hundred athletes took part in the 21-kilometre race with starting point from the Sharks Stadium through the Eastern by-pass, Elekahia, Aba -Port Harcourt Express road and down to Hospital road.
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The top three runners in the male categories which included Nigeria’s marathon sensation Shehu Adamu Muazu, also finished in the top three brackets at the ijebu-Ode half Marathon last weekend.
Kenyans John Buru finished second in ijebu ode but defeated Shehu Adamu his main rival in Port Harcourt in a time of 1:09:00 while Chepteock Careen ran a time of 1:45:45seconds to emerge as the women’s champion.
The athletes
commended the organisers for putting the Mini marathon together and attributed their feats to quality training.
Organisers assured that the marathon will be an annual event, stressing that the successful conduct of the race has shown that Rivers state was peaceful.
Prizes were presented to winners as athletes looked forward to the next edition in 2023.
(Editor, Omor Bazuaye)
