Tag: OKPEKPE

Winner of the  10th Okpekpe Road race,  Edward Zakayo Pingua , has vowed  to come back stronger  next year  to break the 28:28 course record set last year by Daniel Simiu Ebenyo.

The Kenyan, who came into the historic race as the favourite to win  and possibly break the course record after running 27:49 in January in Ibiza (Spain ),  only ran 29:31 to claim the title.

Pingua revealed he was not pushed hard enough by his opponents, especially the Ethiopian, Haftamu Gebrselassie, the only other athlete to have broken 28 minutes over the 10km road distance before the race.

 “I was not pushed hard by those I competed against. The course is also very hard, especially towards the end,’ said the Kenyan who, at the half way mark was on course to breaking the record after crossing with 14:10 with an average pace of 02:50 min/km .”

He ran the last five kilometres with an average pace of 03:04 min/km and ended the race with 29:31 ahead of his countrymen, Isaac Kimpemboi (29:36) and Alex Oloitiptip Kori (29:50).

 Pingua has however vowed to come back next year to erase Ebenyo’s name as the Okpekpe international 10km road race course record holder.

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“I will come back next year to claim the course record,” he said,  promising to battle Ebenyo for both the title and the course record in 2025.

Asked if he was not scared  world number one ranked Ebenyo might return next year to reclaim the title he was forced to relinquish without a fight, Pingua said he was ready.

“I am ready to fight for the title with Daniel (Ebenyo). I am not afraid of him,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gladys Kwamboka who ran 33:05 to win the women’s title , said  the tortuous nature of the Okpekpe race course made it impossible to run faster than she did.

The Kenyan came to Okpekpe brandishing a brand new 31.54 lifetime best she ran just last month and was tipped to move close or break Caroline Kipriuki’s 32.38 course record but she failed to fulfil expectations despite running 15:36 at the half way mark.

“The course is one of the hardest in the world,” she said.

Her compatriots, Regina Wambui (33:38) and Sheila Cherotich (34:27) came in second and third respectively with Nigeria’s Patience Dalyop Mwanvwang coming in fourth to successfully defend her title as first Nigerian to cross the finish line.

Mwanvwang came into the race with a 34:34 lifetime best set in Lagos in February and looks to be on the way to running inside 35 minutes again at the half way mark (17:26) with a 03:29 min/km pace but faded out in the second five kilometres before crossing the finishing line in 37:07.

 The duo of Ismael Sadjo and Patience Mwavwang will be seeking to successfully defend the Okpekpe international 10km titles they won last year as the  historic 10^th  edition  of the gold label race comes alive tomorrow in Edo State.  

Sadjo ran 31:53 to win the event last year but will need to be at his very best and prepare to break 31 minutes for the first time in his career to ward off the challenge that will be posed by Francis James who ran 30:47 to win the 10km race at the Lagos Access Bank Marathon in Lagos in February.

Gang James Boyi (30:51) also ran inside 31 minutes in Lagos will also be in Okpekpe to challenge for the title.

Sadjo’s best in Okpekpe was the 31.06 he ran to win at the inaugural edition of the race in 2013 (before the label status) and a repeat performance could earn him the title for the second straight year.

In the  women’s category , David Abiye will challenge Mwavwang for the title but the defending champion will hope to get the better of her in-form challenger just like she did in Lagos last February in the 10km race at the Lagos Access Bank marathon.

Mwavwang ran a new 34:43 lifetime best (probably a new Nigeria record) in the race and will hope to become the first Nigerian woman to break 34 minutes over the 10km when she runs in Okpekpe.

Multiple winners, Deborah Pam will not be available this year as she has taken a leave off the road for procreation.

Stephen Nuhu, a long distance running coach who will accompany the athletes to Okpekpe,  is confident that Nigerian athletes can get over the 30 minutes line and become internationally recognized very soon.

“The athletes have been training very well and I am confident they will soon become recognized as international elite athletes  which will make them available for other label road races around the world,” he said even as he praised  the organizers of the Okpekpe Road Race for always having the welfare of the Nigerian elite athletes among their top priorities.

He said: “Okpekpe race organizers offer our athletes accommodation and transport subsidy, something we don’t get in some of the other races in Nigeria except the 10km road race we ran in Ilesha about two years or so ago.”

There will be over N100m on offer as prize money at the race for the top five finishers in each gender category for the international elite field as well as for the Nigerian elite runners will battle for the prize money.

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Winners in each gender category will go home with $15,000 while second and third place finishers will be rewarded with $8,000 and $5,000 respectively, with fourth and fifth going home with $3,000 and $2,000 respectively.

For the Nigerian elite athletes, a top prize of N500,000 will go to the winners of each gender category. Second to fifth place will be rewarded with N300,000, N200,000, N120,000 and N80,000 respectively.

Okpekpe road race, run over hills and tarred roads, starting from Apana Road and ending in Okpekpe town is the first road race in Nigeria to have its course measured by a World Athletics certified course measurer and the first to be granted a label status (bronze in 2015) by World Athletics.

This means Okpekpe road race is the first internationally recognized road running event in West Africa. It was upgraded to a silver level label status in 2018 before it moved to gold in 2023 to become  

the first gold label 10km race ever run on Nigerian soil.

Course, African record breakers to get jumbo rewards

Organizers of the historic 10th Okpekpe international 10km road race in Okpekpe in Edo State, have pledged  to reward  athletes who break the Course and African/World records at the event  with a handsome  cash prize of $2,000 and $5,000 respectively.

These cash boost is  in addition to the race’s bonus rewards of between $15,000 and $2,000 for the first five finishers respectively.

As a result, the top winners in both men and women at the Okpekpe race,  can make a total of $22,000 each if they break the official course and African (World) records (subject to ratification under World Athletics rules).

This will be made up of the prize money of $15,000 and $2,000 for breaking the course record and $5,000 for breaking the African/World record.

The Okpekpe race 10km course record stands at 28 minutes and 28 seconds (28:28) for men set last year Daniel Simiu Ebenyo and 32 minutes, 41 seconds (32.41) set in 2014 by Ethiopia’s Wude Ayalew.

The African record for men which is also the world record is 26 minutes, 33 seconds (26:33) set by Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto in 2020 while another Kenyan, Agnes Jebet Ngetich holds the African nay World record for women at 28 minutes, 46 seconds (28:46) set in January 2024 in Valencia, Spain.

Zack Amodu, the Okpekpe international 10km road race director, revealed  why performance bonus has been introduced for; this year’s race.

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 “This year, we have the $2,000 and $5,000 performance bonus to be earned by any man or woman who breaks the course record and African/World record respectively. Last year, we saw how Daniel Ebenyo moved very close to running a sub-28 minutes on his way to setting the 28:28 course record,” said Amodu. “We are motivating the athletes to run a little faster with the introduction of the performance bonus as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the most prestigious and first World Athletics label road race in West Africa.

“With the quality of athletes that we have signed on and those who have signified interest in the race, I am sure a new course record will be set,” he added.

Amodu said  this year’s edition will be used to celebrate Pamodzi Sports Marketing’s 10 years of organising an event that World Athletics, the world governing body for the sport of athletics has recognised as a truly world class race and which it did not hesitate to classify as such with the award of a bronze label status in 2015.

 “As a recognition of the technical and administrative capabilities officials of Pamodzi have been displaying, the race was upgraded to a silver label status in 2018 and gold in 2023. We have proved that Nigerians are capable of organizing world class events,” said a delighted Amodu who has been at the heart of delivering a truly world class race.

The Okpekpe international 10km road race is an annual event held in Edo State, Nigeria. It’s a challenging 10km road race that takes place over hills and tarred roads, starting from Apana Road and ending in Okpekpe town.

The race has attracted participants from various countries, including Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Morocco, Israel, Bahrain, and Nigeria.

Global focus has now shifted to Okpekpe, in Edo state, Nigeria as the next  host of a World Athletics gold label road race in the world after  Istanbul Half Marathon (Turkiye İş Bankası ) was held  in Turkey at the end of last month.

The Okpekpe International 10km road race which holds May  25th is the 23rd of the 45 World Athletics gold label races  for this year and  as it was in  previous years, it will be the only labelled  road race to hold on the day irrespective of the label category.

Organizers of the race, Pamodzi Sports Marketing International, said this year’s edition ‘is a celebration of 10 years of organising a truly  world-class event that has made Nigeria one of the  sporting destinations especially  for road running events.

“We are proud of the big step we took in 2015 to make the Okpekpe 10km road race the first to get World Athletics’ recognition in West Africa with our bronze label status,” said  the race director, Zack Amodu. “We are super delighted the effect we have had in getting more road races in Nigeria get World Athletics’ attention and the certification of over 15 road race courses in Nigeria by World Athletics accredited course measurer.”

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Amodu believes the Okpekpe 10km road race will continue to blaze the trail in Nigeria nay West Africa, adding the support of the host community, the race’s partners, the Edo state government in particular and the officials, especially the volunteers who work to organize the race that has continued to be recognized and applauded by World Athletics in the past nine years, have been the motivating factor to keep setting the bar high.

 “The elite cast has been one of the best any gold label race could have and the result is that some of these elite athletes have gone on to become medalists at World Athletics sponsored global events as we saw last year when Daniel Ebenyo, the Kenya who owns our course record won a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary and the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia.

“He is also the number one ranked athlete in World Athletics ranking for 10,000m and 10 kilometres,” added Amodu.

One of Nigeria’s most respected distance running coaches, Stephen Nuhu , has  described   the world acclaimed and World Athletics Gold Label Okpekpe International 10km  Road Race has been a blessing to Nigeria.

He  congratulated organizers of the race on the 10th  anniversary of the historic event which he noted  has ‘put Nigeria on the map of the world as a destination for sports’.

“I want to congratulate the organizers of the race for consistently organizing a world class event every year. It is a testament to the organizational ability of Nigerians and I am happy World Athletics acknowledged this with the label status granted the race in 2015 and its subsequent upgrade from silver to gold,” said Nuhu.

The Plateau State-born coach who is known for producing most of today’s elite long distance runners in Nigeria, noted that the  Okpekpe race is the only international  road race in Nigeria that does not discriminate between Nigerian  elite and their foreign counterparts.

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“It is only Okpekpe race that has provided transport subsidy and accommodation for our elite athletes the same way they did for foreign elite athletes.

“Whenever we come to Okpekpe, we don’t worry about where to sleep and that has helped the athletes to focus on the race.

“It has also helped the athletes to mingle with their foreign based counterparts and has provided the platform for exchange of ideas including training methods and other opportunities,” Nuhu noted.

Nuhu is particularly grateful to Mike Itemuagbor, the race promoter/organizer for always insisting Nigerian elite distance runners deserve to be treated  equally like their foreign counterparts.

 “I want to say a big thank you to him and for providing our athletes the opportunity to compete in a world class event capable of helping them to secure qualification to run in big international events like the Olympics.”

The Okpekpe international 10km road race is a Paris Olympics qualifying event but Nuhu surmised Nigerian elite athletes will have to break new, unfamiliar grounds to take advantage of the opportunity.

He said: “I know we will have to run 27:00 for men and 30:40 for women to qualify through the Okpekpe platform for the Paris Olympics but we are striving to make sure we produce the first, legal sub-30 minutes runner for men and sub-33 minutes for women.

“If we are able to achieve that and with the support organizers of road races in Nigeria, especially Okpekpe road race, has been giving, we can improve and  start producing world class distance runners,” added Nuhu.

The 10th , Gold Label Okpekpe international road race will hold on Saturday May 25 in Okpekpe in Edo state, Nigeria. The race is the first in Nigeria to get have its course measured by a World Athletics certified course measurer and the first in west Africa to be granted a World Athletics Label.

The  World Athletics  has confirmed  Saturday, May 25th date for the  10th  edition of the historic  Okpekpe international 10km road race

The race, the first road running event in West Africa to get World Athletics recognition is among the 30 gold level road races listed in World Athletics’ worldwide calendar of global races for 2024.

Overall, World Athletics has confirmed 167 road races for the year and Okpekpe race is the first gold level 10km road race that will hold in 2024.

Zack Amodu, Okpekpe Road Race director , said  organizers of the race were happy to have consistently received recognition from World Athletics since it was granted a bronze label status in 2015.

He said: “Since the race made history as the first Nigerian nay West African road running event to be recognized by World Athletics and granted a bronze label status in 2015, it has continued to wax stronger and have grown to a gold level status.

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“This is down to our ability to play by World Athletics rules,’ said Amodu who reveals other reasons why the race has been a huge success.

“The support we have received from the Okpekpe town and its environs, the people and government of Edo state, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Sports Development and of course our sponsors have been invaluable.

“Through our sponsors we have been able to make Edo state in particular and Nigeria in general a destination of sort for Sports.                             

“On May 25, the attention of the whole sporting world will be on Nigeria when the race is held. It is the only gold level road race that will be held in the whole world that day which means there will be no divided attention,” added  Amodu, a this adding  edition will equally serve as a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics.