Foreigners Take Home Access Bank Lagos City Marathon Glory Again

Gov Akinwunmi Ambode (2nd right) presents the first prize cheque of 50,000 dollars to Frenchman Abraham Kiprotich.

A Frenchman and an Ethiopian woman have won the 2018 edition of the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon.

Frenchman Abraham Kiprotich returned at a time of 2:15:04 to win the 42km race which climaxed at the Eko Atlantic City Saturday morning. He will pocket the sum of the $50,000 prize money.

Kiprotich, had last November won the 39th Istanbul Marathon, which covered 46 kms.

Herpha Guta of Ethiopia was the winner of the women event when she returned at a time of 2hrs 38 mins. Nigerian Ilya Pam wins the indigenous race with 2hrs 27mins.

While presenting the prizes, Chief Host, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State said he was happy with the progress made by the marathon race in few years of its existence by clocking IAAF Bronze Medal label, “it was gratifying that the Lagos City Marathon had, within three years, earned a Bronze Label rating and has put Lagos on the international map as the hub for sports development in Africa”, adding that “ we want to get it to the Gold level, in the next two years.

“We’re tired of giving these trophies to the East Africans. We’ll be committing resources to training our Nigerian athletes so they can win the marathon.”

Ethiopian Herpha is First Female to Cross Finish Line at Lagos City Marathon

Meanwhile, Nigerian sporting stars also took part in the 10km event. Stars such as Austin Jay-Jay Okocha, former Super Eagles captain and Olumide Oyedeji, former national basketball team Captain, D’Tigers.

PM EXPRESS reports that 0ver 100,000 runners took part in the IAAF Bronze Label Race which offers 208,000 dollars for grabs.