By Chimezie Anaso
Onitsha (Anambra), – Olusegun Shogbesan, a Professor and Chief Promoter of Onitsha City Half-Marathon, has described the the 21-kilometre race on Saturday in Onitsha as a huge success.
Shogbesan, who is the Chairman of Onitsha Business School, expressed the opinion while addressing newsmen at the Chuba Ikpeazu Stadium, the finishing point of the marathon.
The promoter, who broke down in tears, thanked Alfred Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, for his immense support and royal blessing to ensure the success of the event.
He described the challenges during the build up as herculean and appreciated God for pulling the marathoners from countries of Africa, including Kenya and Ghana and other parts of the world like China and Germany to Onitsha.
“To God be the glory, I don’t want to be emotional about it, but there is no way I wouldn’t, when one has the grace to see far and is able to qualify the benefit in the present and for posterity.
“But faced challenges and hindrances that are not necessary, you get discouraged, disappointed and dismayed, we heard things that never happened, things that never came to your mind, but we tried to change the narrative.
“We are better than what people call us, Anambra State is endowed, Igboland is a great nation but until we identify our strength and exploit the opportunities available to us, we will continue to be complainants in the comity of nations,” he said.
Shogbesan, who said he had spent about 30 years in Anambra, said he was determined to contribute his quota to the course of developing the state.
According to him, history has been made and and next edition would be better.
The don also thanked sports writers for their encouragement and giving the organisers inspiration at a time they felt the event was destined to fail in the face of hiccups.
“I have discovered that we can sustain excellence in this state, that is why we came up with the race, a social economic aggregator, because there is no other sport that can attract international attention easily like a Marathon.
“People from across the world, Germany, China, Kenya, Ghana were all here, running in the streets in Anambra, in the streets of Onitsha, before now people thought we were joking, they did not know we mean business.
“Thank God for the Obi of Onitsha who encouraged us with royal blessing, today history is made, record is set, standard is created and next year, the whole world will know that there is a race called Onitsha City Marathon.
“I belong here, I have dedicated myself to this service, the media was wonderful, the encouragement was immense, the media told us it was possible, thanks for all the support,” he said while he fought back tears.
Peter Katchy, Chairman of Red Cross Society in Anambra, thumbed up for the organisers for organising a near perfect Marathon.
Katchy said the Red Cross recorded four cases of runners who broke down due to exhaustion but confirmed that there was no fatality.
He congratulated the Kenyans who won the Marathon and asked their Nigerian counterparts to come more prepared in future editions so as to win.
“We recorded four casualties, they were cases of tiredness and lack of ability to continue the race but no death. Two of them who slumped have been revived and finished the race, while two are at the hospital taking treatment.
“It was highly successful Marathon, we followed it through, this is the first time it is holding here and with what we saw it can only be better next year.
“I don’t know why the government is not here, may be a lapse or the organisers did not coordinate it well.
“Anambra has Commissioner for Health, Sports Commission Chairman and Women Affairs Commissioner. Their mandate could have covered marathon but I don’t know if they were not informed.
“I can’t speak for them, if they were reached, they should have sent representatives, know there is Walk for Life going on today also,” he said.
Emeka Odikpo, a veteran broadcaster and member of race organising committee, also rated the success of the marathon at 75 per cent.
Odikpo, who said that the marathon created a record where 157 runners from the 1,000 that participated finished the race, also commended participants for their good behaviour.
He said it was not easy hosting the event in a densely populated commercial city of Onitsha, especially mapping out the routes and maintaining hitch-free traffic.
He said there was government’s involvement at the national level, which made over 50 foreigners to come into the country, but blamed Anambra Government’s absence on initial skepticism on the success of the race.
“I assure you that next year, the government will come in, thank God we have five years franchise to organise this Marathon,” Odikpo said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Kenya’s Bernard Sang and Esther Chesand, were overall winners in the male and female categories respectively
Emmanuel Pam and Fadekmi Olude were first Nigerians to breast the tape in male and female categories respectively.
William Amposah from Ghana, who finished fifth overall, was the first West African to breast the tape, while Augustine Nwafor was the first athlete from Onitsha to finish the race.