Ibadan-Harris Ismail from Plateau State on Sunday in Ibadan won the 2015 edition of the Splash FM Integrity Marathon to pocket the male category cash prize of N600,000.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that about 900 athletes from all over Nigeria participated in the race which has a N2 million total prize money.
It was co-sponsored by Splash FM, Ibadan and the PDP governorship candidate in Oyo State, Teslim Folarin.
In addition to winning, Ismail also set the fastest time at the seven-year-old event.
He beat the record time of two hours 39 minutes 58 seconds he set in 2013 with a new time of 2:35:06.
Sharabutu Philibus from Nasarawa State, who came second in 2013 and fifth in 2014, finished second with 2:35:21 to win a cash prize of N300,000.
Abdulahi Ibrahim from Nasarawa State, who finished fourth last year, was third on Sunday after he finished the race in 2:37:37 for the cash prize of N150,000.
In the female category, 19-year-old Deborah Pam, a student of College of Education, Gindiri in Plateau who won the 2013 edition, emerged the winner.
Pam, who ran for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) team, won the cash prize of N400,000 after a time of 3:03:23 for a new race record.
Lydia Michael from Nasarawa State finished second to win the N200,000 prize money, while her state team mate, Elizabeth Nuhu, finished third for the prize money of N100,000.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
During the closing ceremony, Chairman of Splash FM, Adebayo Akande, who attended the event with his wife, Onikepo, noted in his speech that the race was unique in many ways.
“This marathon race is unique, because it was designed to fight one of the greatest problems confronting Nigeria, which is corruption.
“We hope to instill integrity not only in the minds of the athletes and observers of today’s event, but also in the minds of all Nigerians.
“Through this, we are advocating that the race against corruption is not a relay race, neither is it a short course,” he said.(NAN)
