Winner of the 2018 Access Bank Lagos Marathon, Rose Akusho, once again established her dominance in long distant race adding another gold medal to her trophy cabinet in the Lagos Women run held on Saturday.

Akusho beat other competitors with a finishing time of 34:35:02 and Mary Stephen with the time of 35:49:27 coming in second, while Maria Ezekiel came third with 36:03:27.

Charity Agbofure came fourth with a time of 36:09:50 and Dinatu Donatus coming fifth with finishing time of 36:39:49.

What is however surprising in the 10Km Women run is that the first, second and third are within 21-22 years.

The first placed Akusho is 21; second place Stephen is 21 while Ezekiel is 22.

Akusho who hails from Jos told NAN that she was delighted to have won the race, adding that her early start to long distance race aided her dominance in the long distance race.

“I think what helped me most is that I started running early enough. I started racing at the age of nine years and I used to train a lot for my races.

“I am also used to starting my preparation for any race early. Whenever I entered for any race, that will be the time for me to discipline myself. I fast and pray for success.

“Winning both races — Access Bank Lagos Marathon and Lagos Women run is what I have dreamt of right from the time I got to know about the races, ” she said.

Second place Stephen said that she would love to be on the podium as winners in no distant time.

“I am going to work on myself; I want to come first very soon, so people should watch out for me. I am training hard for this because I also started running early at the age of 10,” she said.

This year’s race was split into two categories, the legends category which is for participants between 18 – 44, and the veterans category for ages 45 and above.