Winner of the 10km road race in the special athlete’s men category at the just concluded Access Bank Lagos City Marathon Omojola Olarinde Alinco has stated that he is excited about his win at the event stating that hard work, dedication and luck was extremely key to his performance at the race.
The Nigerian born athlete who recently returned from the United States of America to be part of the race revealed his excitement to Sport247.ng stating that although he is happy for the win he also must thank his luck for the win despite the obstacles on the way and the competition faced from the first runner up. “I am happy I won but the guy that came second did a really good job, he gave me a good fight till the end and all I can say is that i am lucky to have won because sometimes you want to win but something happens on the way so I think my hard work paid off today.”
Despite the disparity in the prize money given to the winners of the 10km in the able bodied and special athletes, Omojola has called on the organizers to increase the numbers of winners in the special category so has to help others cater for their trainings and the maintenance of their equipments. “I think everyone should be treated the same way. We all train for competitions but as special athletes we spend more.
The wheelchair I’m using is $6, 000 and that is quite expensive so all we are asking is that they should increase the number of athletes that should get prize money for the special athletes category because of the amount they spent on their training and equipments, it is not good for them to just go empty handed like that.”
After encountering some problems on their way which eventually slowed down their overall winning time, Omojola has advice the organizers to ensure that they allow special athletes start first the next time. “I think we should start ahead of the able bodied athletes because having them start ahead of us makes it difficult for us to move fast because you get to see bottles and cans of water on the way, lots of people on the way which slows us down so from the next edition they should help us correct the situation.”
