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The
Obudu International Mountain Race, which is now in its sixth year,
comes up on November 27 at the Obudu Ranch Resort. And with a total
prize money of $278,000 as well as a star prize of $50,000 for the
respective winners of the men’s and women’s races, the event remains
the highest paying mountain running event in the world.

$15,000 is also set
aside for the respective winners of the men’s and women’s team races –
the African Nations Mountain Running Championship.

The men’s team
event was first staged at last year’s edition but the women’s team race
will be making its debut at this year’s edition, which is part of the
reason why Patrick Ugbe, the chief press secretary to the Cross River
state governor Liyel Imoke, said this year’s race will be the biggest
and the best ever organised in the history of the competition. Ugbe
also said the Cross River state government, organisers of the annual
Obudu International Mountain Race, was committed towards the successful
staging of this year’s event.

Bigger and better

“This year we are
having a three-in-one race,” said Ugbe. “Last year it was a two-in-one
race following the staging of the African Nations Championships for men
alongside the annual Obudu International race.

“This year, the
African Nations Mountain running championships (for women) will make
its debut,” revealed Ugbe, who also serves as the media chief for the
race.

The Obudu
international mountain race enjoys tremendous support from the African
Athletics Confederation(CAA), the World Mountain Running Association
(WMRA), and the International Association of Athletics Federations
(IAAF).

The race covers a
distance of 11 kilometres uphill to an altitude of 1,575 metres above
sea level, taking competitors to one of the finest tourist destinations
in the world, the Obudu Mountain Resort.

Mercy Nku honoured
Meanwhile, former African 100 metres champion, Mercy Nku topped the
list of 50 distinguished Cross River indigenes recently honoured by the
state governor Imoke on the occasion of Nigeria’s golden jubilee
celebrations.

Nku was crowned Africa’s fastest woman in 1999 at the 7th All
African Games in Johannesburg, South Africa but had four years earlier
at the 1995 African Junior Championships in Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire, won
four gold medals to make history as the only Nigerian female athlete to
accomplish such a feat.