Plateau athletes clinch top honours at Adebayo Christmas marathon

Athletes from Plateau State swept the top three positions at the Adewole Adebayo 2025 Christmas Marathon held on Sunday in Ondo City, Ondo State.

The race, which featured male and female runners from across Nigeria and other African countries, including Ghana, Benin Republic and Burundi, saw Plateau male runners claim the first, second and third prizes, earning ₦2 million, ₦1 million and ₦500,000 respectively.

The winners were Giang James Boi, Francis James and Musa Bala Sati.

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Consolation prizes of ₦50,000 each were awarded to athletes who finished between fourth and 10th positions.

The marathon was organised alongside the Queen Lilian Adebayo Health Walk, where the top 10 participants received ₦100,000 each.

Speaking after the event, the organising chairman of the marathon, Omoyele Sowore, expressed disappointment over the limited international participation, attributing it to late publicity.

According to him, earlier and more robust publicity would have attracted more international athletes, noting that the prize money was competitive by Nigerian standards.

“It is a standardised process and our aim is to make it an international marathon. My suggestion is that when you are starting a marathon, you begin small before expanding. We are considering a half marathon next, which will require more resources,” he said.

Sowore added that although the race had been officially recognised as a marathon with certification issued, there were shortcomings, particularly with water points along the route.

“The major deficiency I noticed today was the absence of water at some water points. That needs to be corrected,” he said.

He further noted that prize money would need to be significantly increased to attract elite international runners.

“You rarely find a marathon in Nigeria that pays ₦2 million to the winner, but I believe it should be higher. Anyone running 15 kilometres should not earn less than ₦5 million. If we invited Kenyan athletes, they would not accept anything less than $20,000 for first place,” Sowore said.

In his remarks, the organiser, Prince Adewole Adebayo, said the marathon was designed to empower young people and help them maximise their potential.

He urged participants to remain committed to positive and productive activities that would improve their lives and contribute to national development.