NW Athletes Demystify Epas’a Moto
- Athletes from up country dominated the race in both the
male and female categories, taking home all the jackpots allocated for winners.
By Boris Esono in Buea
 |
| Female Athletes from NW came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions |
Mbatcha Eric and TatahCarine, both from the North West
Region of Cameroon are the winners of the 24th edition of the Mount Cameroon
race of Hope in the male and female categories respectively. The race was run
on Saturday 23 February in Buea.
Athletes
from the North West Region occupied all six available places on the podium,
emerging 1st, 2nd and 3rd in both male and female senior categories.
Mbatcha
Eric won the race for the third time after wins in 2011 and 2014. He covered
the 43km distance up and down the mountain in 4hrs, 40mins, 09secs.
Reacting
after his victory, Mbatcha said 2019 has not been an easy one giving the
socio-political unrest which made training impossible. He said his trainers
advised him to move over to Nkongsamba where he trained for 10 weeks on the
Muanenguba Mountain.
"It
was not easy this year. I was first to arrive at the summit but on descending I
was overtaken at Hut 3. But due to my experience I was able to pass the guy in
the forest which made me to come first.
Ali
Mohamadou came second using 4hrs, 44mins, 30sec, while last year's winner
GodloveGabsibum came third after 4hrs, 46mins, 09sec.
Hopes
for LyongaEssombe from the SW winning this year’s race were dashed. Essombe
came 3 two years ago, but finished at a disappointing 6th position this time.
His
facial expression was very telling of his disappointment. He was visibly
"crying". He had emerged second during the test race in Buea was with
hopes that he could perform even better in the main event.
For the
heroine of the day, TatahCarine, it was her second consecutive victory, after
winning the 2018 edition. She did the race in 5hrs, 33mins, 41sec.
Carine
was followed in second place by her elder sister, NgalimLisette who did the
race in 5hrs, 37mins, 41sec. Ngwaya Yvonne came third after 5hrs, 51mins,
50sec.
Speaking
to the media, TatahCarine thanked God for making her victory possible despite
the challenges. She said it was a tough race. She blamed the difficulty on the
conflict which made training impossible in the NW and SW, forcing her to
relocate to Nkongsamba.
In the
female veteran category, Nogeh Brigit claimed the 1st prize while Nkumbi
Martina and Georges Jackai came second and third respectively.
The
veteran male category was won by OwonaZe Etienne, Kaponfack Patrice and Fotso
Emile in that order.
The
female junior category was won by Tumi Marina and NgwayaMaika and Late Flora
finished second and third.
Mentan
Cornelius won the junior male category. He was followed by PeriyayaElyasu and
SeidouSulemanou. All three are from the North West.
In his
address while welcoming runners as well as guests to Buea, Mayor Ekema Patrick
Esunge invoked the gods of Mount Fako to permit the athletes to dare the
‘Chariot of the Gods’.
The
Mayor applauded the Minister for braving the challenge to be present to launch
the event. He told the Minister that some of his colleagues have failed to beat
fear in similar circumstances.
The
mayor frowned at the fact that preparatory and organinizing committee meetings
for a race to take place in Buea are held instead in Yaounde. He said this
makes it difficult for the local organizing committee to do adequate
preparations.
This
year’s mount Cameroon race comes at a time when security situation in the South
West and North West is at it’s worst. This explains why the Minister and his
delegation were escorted to Buea under tight military security. Buea was in
fact, totally militarized before, during and after the race.
For a
whole month running, separatist forces have imposed total socio-economic
lockdown in the NW and SW. Ahead of the race, they called on the population to
stay at home and boycott the event. This explained the scanty presence of
persons along the race course and in the stadium throughout the race.
No comments:
Post a Comment