A total prize purse of $112,000 will be on offer at the seventh Okpekpe International 10km Road Race next month

A total of $112,000US is the prize money to the top eight finishers in the men and women’s elite race with the winner in each gender category going home with $20,000 while $13,000 and $9,000 respectively will go to the second and third placed finishers.

The prizes for 4th-8th placed finishers in each gender category are $6,500, $3,000, $2,000, $1,500, and $1,000 respectively.

Organisers also announced an unchanged prize money outlay for Nigerian runners at the race.

The first placed finishers in both the men and women race will go home with N1,000,000 ($2777US) while the second to the fifth placed finishers will get N600,000,N400,000,N250,000 and N150,000 respectively.

Meanwhile spokesman for the race, Dare Esan said yesterday that payment of prize money and bonuses is dependent upon athletes clearing the usual anti-doping procedures.

”Athletes running for the prize money on offer must also achieve a level of performance before they can redeem their respective prizes.

”For example, to qualify for the $20,000 top prize for the elite runners, the athletes must run 28:35.00 minutes or better for the men and 32:41.00 minutes for the women.

For the Nigerian category, the winners must run 29:04.00 minutes or better for men and 34:05.01 minutes for the women’s race,’ he added.

The Okpekpe international 10km road race is the first road race in Nigeria and in West Africa to be granted a label status by the IAAF and the only one IAAF silver label road race in Africa this year.

posted Saturday April 20th