Rivers International Marathon: Fubara hails Chris Green as an achiever in Sports, promises bigger Marathon next year

Rivers state Governor, Sir Sim Fubara has hailed his Sports Commissioner, Chris Green, following the successful organization of the first Rivers international marathon on Saturday in Portharcourt.

Fubara, who was present at the finish line for the 42.195km road race says he brought Green in as his Sports Commissioner because of his rich and successful background in Sports administration.

‘I want to commend the Commissioner (Green) to continue to do what you know how to do best. We didn’t bring you here for nothing, we know that you are a man who has made his name in the sports industry, continue to make us proud.’

Green had earlier highlighted the enviable heights sports has reached in just one year of the Fubara administration as the Executive Governor of the state.

Fubara expressed delight that the achievements on the side of women’s teams and the side of the male teams, clearly showed that so much has been done right to place the sports sector on a good footing in the state.

Congratulating the winners of the marathon, Fubara assured that his administration will sustain support for all youths who want to explore their sporting talents in the state and help them to blossom.

He said, ‘Let me also say that, we might not have gotten it very, very right in this first one because it is the first.

‘I strongly believe that when we are going to host the second one, most of our mistakes, most of the areas that we did not consider, we will consider them and make the second event a more glamorous one that will be better than this.

‘For us as a government, we know the importance of sports. We know that sports and youth development go together. For that reason, we are not going to joke about the aspect of youth development. We are not going to joke in the aspect of sports development.’

The Governor thereafter decorated the winners with their medals and presented them with their prizes while also announcing N5 million apiece to each of the first-place winners as support from the state government.

Fubara announced a complimentary monetary award of N1 million each to the athletes in the first 20 places behind the gold medal winners as an encouragement to them, saying that it will motivate others to consider joining the competition in the future.

In the 30-meter race, Fubara emerged as the winner and had his medal presented to him by the Chairman, Governing Council of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Chief Adokiye Amiesimaka, a former Nigeria international winger and a member of the Green Eagles team that won for Nigeria the first Africa Cup of Nations trophy in 1980.