NW athletes dominate 20th edition of Race of Hope

Athletes from the Northwest Region greedily grabbed 14 out of the 24 top three prizes in all categories of the 20th edition of the Guinness Mount Cameroon Race of Hope that took place last Saturday February 14, 2015, going back home with 78% of the total prize money, plus two plan tickets to Nairobi, Kenya, two 1.5 million scholarships and 500,000 frs as further incentives to the top two athletes in both the female and male categories.

Godlove Gabsibuin, 2012 champion beat his friend and training mate, Mbatcha Eric, last year winner by 50 seconds to clinch the top prize, covering the 38 Km up and down the mountain in 4 hours, 23 minutes, 12 seconds while Ngwaya Yvonne reclaimed the throne she lost to Ngalim Lisette last year in 5 hours 27 minutes, to claim her 6th title, one behind the queen of the mountain, Serah Liengu Etonge.

The junior categories for under-18 athletes were also dominated by Northwest athletes. In the men’s category, only Yousouf Issa from the Adamawa region came in third position to break NW hegemony, behind Ahmadou Ibrahim and Adamu Issa in first and second spots respectively.

Northwest would have grabbed all prizes if Achimbong Emile who actually came first was not disqualified for cheating. It is alleged that he departed with the seniors, 5 minutes ahead of the juniors, does gaining a precious five minute lead ahead of Ahmadou Ibrahim.

The top three places in the ladies junior categories were swept by athletes from the Northwest with 18 years old Wirba Mary Grace winning top prize ahead of Tumlah Claudine and Lenjo Christable.

The only category where the Northwest was completely lacking was in the men’s veteran race, where there were several complains of biased and cheating by some military personnel and race officials stationed at Upper Farm, limit of the veteran category, whom they blamed of selectively allowing some athletes to go beyond their limit to give undue advantage to their friends who arrived later.

This was also echoed by the minister of Sports and Physical Education Adoum Garoua who called for the organizers to do better in future race and for the younger athletes to be followed up to ensure continuity.