Formerhead coach of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria, Armelia Edet, has hailed the Cross River State government and Governor Liyel Imoke for the continued sponsorship of the annual Obudu International Mountain Race and the African Nations Mountain Running championships.Edet, who was decorated with the IAAF Veteran Pin Award in 2009 at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany for her role in lifting the status of the sport in the world both as a athlete and as a coach said the race has re-awakened Nigerias interest in long distance, road and mountain races.She acknowledged that Nigeria has failed to develop these events despite the fact that there are enough talents and natural environment to train and be as good as the East Africans who have become the undisputed champions in the races.She said, What the Obudu race has done is to remind us that we have the talents to compete and the environment to train and become forces to reckon with in the world. It has re-awakened the interest of the athletes who have seized on the opportunity to close the gap between them and the East Africans. What we need to do now is to develop the environment to train these athletes.It is a well known fact that the East Africans have taken advantage of the high altitude in that part of Africa to train these runners. We also have the same kind of environment in some states in the north...even the Obudu Ranch Resort. What we have to do now is to set up training camps in these areas to train our athletes.The Cross River State-born coach who won a 100m hurdles silver at the 1973 All Africa Games in Lagos behind Modupe Oshikoya added, The Governor has taken the Obudu race to another level by not only improving on the prize money to still make it the highest paying mountain race in the world but by also adding the African championships to the two-day showpiece.By that singular act, the governor has helped in making mountain running very popular in Africa and here in Nigeria we are already reaping the benefit, she added.This years race will hold on November 28.
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