Koogo Atia staged an improved show to win the men’s top prize in the 21km event of the Accra Inter City Homowo Marathon held on Friday.

Having been beaten to the slot last year, Atia took nothing for granted.

He gave an early indication as he attempted to break away from the pack but his closest competitors, especially Basit Afful and Ishmael Arthur managed to keep him in eye contact.

But the University of Education, Winneba final year student brought maintained his composure, kept the lead and saved some energy as his pursuers attempted to close up.

But when he mattered most on the final stretch, Atia increased the tempo and left behind Afful and Arthur in second and third places respectively, finishing with an impressive time of 1:07.39.

Atia received a GHȻ10,000 cash prize and qualifies to participate in the Soweto Marathon later in the year.

“I am looking forward to the next challenge of competing on the international stage. I have to prepare very well to make Ghana proud,” he said.

Lariba Zakaat grabbed the same amount of money and silverware after dominating the women’s category to emerge winner.

Just like Atia, she was pushed to her limit by first runner up Anaaba Portia and Ramatu Abdulai, second runner up to the tape.

Winners in the 5km, 10km men’s and women’s races as well as wheelchair race were honoured by the organisers.

Addressing participants after the race, Mr. Henri Senyo Penni, the General Manager of Medivents Consult, organisers of the event said he was satisfied with the turnout and commended the runners for turning up in their numbers.

“First of all, I want to congratulate the winners in the various race categories and hope that will be a motivation for those that didn’t win to train harder to be counted among the winners.

Sponsors of this year’s race include Allied Consortiums, HD Plus, G4S, Serene Insurance, mybet.africa.com, Happy FM, Harmony Haven, Aqua Blue Mineral Water, Indomie, and Dannex Aryton.

This year’s Accra Inter-City Homowo Marathon was organised in partnership with the Ga Traditional Council (GTC) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).

By Spectator Sports Reporter