Malik Yakubu beats Kassim to win 29th Milo Marathon
Malik Yakubu who hails from the Ashanti Region defied all odds to beat defending champion Kassim Mohammed in a distance of 42.2km to emerge winner of the 29th edition of the Milo Marathon held on Wednesday.
The annual race dubbed ‘‘ Every champion begins with a first step’’ which started at the Nungua Barrier and ended at the Dansoman Keep fit Club saw the civilian, who placed third last year finished first in a time of 2: 22.46 dethroning Mohammed who ran 2:22.59 with Joseph Yandal occupying the third position.
The Millennium Marathon winner took an impressive lead midway through the race and maintained his composure and pace to become the new marathon King.
For his feat, Yakubu went home with GH¢15,000, a trophy, several boxes of Voltic Mineral water and products from Nestle Ghana. Mohammed and Yandal received 5,000 and 3,000 respectively plus products from Voltic Mineral water and Nestle Ghana.
In the Women’s mass sports category which covered the same distance, 19 year old Elizabeth Azuure, a student of the Navrongo Senior High School brushed aside competition from last year’s winner Sakat Lariba and Elizabeth Bortso to win the category.
The winner, first runner-up and second runner-up bagged GH¢15,000, GH¢5,000 and GH¢3,000 cash prizes plus souvenirs and products from sponsors.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of marathon, the Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana Mrs. Freda Duplan said “Nestlé Milo, the Energy Food Drink of Future Champions continues to inspire the youth of Ghana to get into sports as we believe that sport has a unique ability to help instill life values such as hard work, responsibility, fair play, discipline, perseverance and team spirit.
“These values are found on the field of play and in sporting activities like the Accra Milo Marathon which we are proud to be associated with for the past twenty-nine year. As a brand, Milo was recently awarded for quality and safety as a proudly made-in-Ghana product, made from the locally sourced cocoa powder from Ghana”.
She congratulated the winners and the participants for the feat chalked.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye said the Marathon in the past produced champions that won laurels for the country at the international level and that games at the schools and colleges level would be revived to comprehensively develop sports across the country.
He called on corporate entities to assist in reviving colts football as well as other sporting disciplines.“It is a pity to see Ghana participate at international competitions without winning medals but government cannot do it alone and would require support from corporate Ghana,” he stated.
He also congratulated the winners and sponsors for their efforts adding that the winners would be considered in their plans towards 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Milo products were presented to the first 20 runners while other participants also received certificates of participation.
About 9,000 runners participated in the main 42.2km mass race while the fun race also saw over thousand runners participating.
The non-competitive race introduced last year would see Nestle Ghana providing 40,000 shoes to the needy in selected schools across the country.
The shoes will be distributed in collaboration with Ghana Education Services in selected districts across all ten regions of Ghana in November 2016.
Source: GNA