As Oshiomole slams Dalung

Simon Cheprot of Kenya has promised to break the Okpekpe international 10km road race record when he returns next year for the fifth edition of the IAAF Bronze Label event.

Cheprot won the men’s title at the fourth edition of the race last Saturday in Okpekpe near Auchi in Edo State of Nigeria in 29 minutes,48 seconds but believed he could have run faster than that if he had taken in the weather factor.

‘The sun is too much.I arrived here on Thursday and could not acclamatise well enough before the race today (Saturday).I came in from a cold region and would have ran faster here if I had arrive a week before the race,’he further said and promised to train in similar conditions to that of Okpekpe for next year’s race.

‘This is a very important race and I want to come back not only to win but to also break the 28 minutes,35 seconds All-Nigeria and Course record (held by Ethiopia’s Teshome Mekonnen).’’

Cheprot who earned his first global medal as his sixth place finish helped the Kenyan trio of himself, Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor and Bedan Karoki Muchiri to record a sub-3-hour time for the team gold medal at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff, Wales last March also annexed the Okpekpe title on his first attempt to become the third Kenyan in four editions to win the men’s title.

Meanwhile reigning Miss Nigeria, Pamela Peter-Vigboro was delighted the Okpekpe race had proved a successful vehicle for raising awareness about breast cancer.

‘This is beyond what I imagined.I never knew it would be this big,’said the 22-year old computer science graduate from the University of Port Harcourt.

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‘I am really thrilled to be a part of an important cause as that of fighting breast cancer in Nigeria,raising awareness about it and helping to treat those diagnosed with it.This has been a successful mission here and I am confident sports will now become to be used as the biggest platform to propagate causes or projects.’’

Apart from the breast cancer awareness run championed by Sebeccly Cancer Care, there were also two other partners who used the Okpekpe race to raise awareness about their charities.

The second charity run for the orphanages was organised by the “We Care Trust” run by the wife of Edo State Governor, Lara Oshiomhole and the third charity run was for safer roads and fuller lives by the Federal Road Safety Commission.

Meanwhile, Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole had lashed out at the Minister for Youths and Sports , Solomon Dalung on his absence at the just concluded Okppkpe race.

He said: “Today we don’t have the privilege of hosting the Minister and I think that was a shame.

“Nigerians in rural area are the forgotten majority, the minister must not sit in the comfort of an office and sermonise sports.

“We must live by example, that’s why I came to show that when those young men are running, we elders can run too.”