Diminutive duo, John and Dutse want to win Abuja Marathon students’ prize

The distance between Knvlope, in Bwari Area Council of FCT and The Pavilion, the ongoing Abuja International Marathon venue is over an hour and the Expo starts at 9 am daily.

But like men on a mission, the duo Peter John and Sunday Emmanuel Dutse accompanied by Danladi Mailamba their coach, manager and teacher had arrived at the Expo ground before dawn.

John 11 years old and Dutse 12 years both students of Knvlope Primary School, in Bwari Area Council of FCT mission is not just to participate in the 5 km race of the Abuja International Marathon, the first international marathon in FCT, but to win the prize money of N500,000.

According to their coach Mailamba a former sprinter and quarter-miler whose athletics career was aborted after secondary because there was no marriage between sports and education at National Teachers Training Institute where he did his NCE (National Certificate in Education) which qualified him to be a teacher running the 5km is not a big deal for John and Dutse,

“Twice a week we do more than 10 km as part of our 6 days training weekly. We normally run twice weekly from Knvlope to Shere a distance that is more than 10km so running and winning the 5km is achievable on April 29’’.