‘Running Guinness Mt. Cameroon Race of Hope Is Fun’

Guinness Cameroun’s policy of promoting sports in Cameroon goes beyond just sponsoring the Mt. Race of Hope, ‘Discovering The Strength’ in the athletes and ratcheting the prizes from miserly trophies to enviable amounts. The brewery company’s interest in supporting sports can be traced even in football in the 70s and 80s when it backed The Cup of Cameroon “Man of the Match Award”.
By Regina Fonjia Leke
Some of the honourees of the Guinness Man of the Match Award included Yetna of Dynamo Douala (1979), Ekoule of Union Douala (1980), Eyobo, Dynamo Douala (1981) and Mabom, Dragon Yaounde (1982).
To affirm that Guinness ‘Is Good’ for the athletes, this year’s Mt. Cameroon Race of Hope bank-rolled by Guinness did, indeed, raise the hopes of competitors and honour hugely those worthy of the greatest distinction at the race that attracted 667 athletes with 37 foreigners from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and others.
The man who carried the day at the 2014 42-km race, 29-year-old Mbatcha Eric, did not only bag 10 million frs CFA but also broke his 2011 record.
“It is an honour for me to have been the first when Guinness stepped in again. I am equally very proud of the fact that I beat my record of 2011 when I won in 4 hrs 29 minutes, but this year, I went up the mountain and came down in 4 hrs 26 minutes,” Mbatcha said.
The father of one said going home with a 10 million cash would help him a great deal to take care of his family. 
Mbatcha hopes to use his trophy to apply for other international competitions.
“The trophy of best runner qualifies me to partake in other international competitions and this will help me boost my career,” he told The Green Vision. 
Questioned on what made him win, Mbatcha said; “It is all about hard work. I trained for over four months before the race.” 
Mbatcha hopes to compete again next year, and thanks the National Athletics Federation for bringing Guinness back on board. 
“Stepping up the prize from 3 million to 10 million is something really encouraging for athletes. I must say well done to the National Athletics Federation and I encourage it to look for more sponsors in and out of the country so that more Cameroonians will be cheered on to take up athletics as a career,” Mbatcha said.
Second and third runners-up Godlove Gibsinyuy and Frederick, respectively, won 5 million and 2 million frs CFA. 
The winner of the female category, Lizette Ngalim, went home also with 10 million frs CFA, while Ngwaya Yvonne came second with 5 million frs CFA and young Tata Karine came third winning 2 million frs CFA. 
Ngalim told The Green Vision that emerging first in the female category made her proud among her peers. 
“I have taken part in the Mt. Cameroon Race nine times. Emerging first and taking home 10 million makes me feel proud for my hard work. I trained for six months before the race and completing the race in 5 hrs 23 minutes as a woman makes me understand that I am tough.” 
The 23-year-old said the money would greatly help in the expansion of her business. 
“This cash prize will really help me expand my tailoring workshop and it will equally help me cater for my siblings who look up to me,” Ngalinm said. 
She expressed deep gratitude to Guinness and the National Athletics Federation for making this year’s race one of a kind.
Meanwhile, the National President of the Cameroon’s Athletics Federation, Motomby Mbome Emmanuel, told the Green Vision that he was a satisfied man seeing how the race turned out. 
“I was an elated person because this was the first time I organised the race as National President and my priority was to ensure that I bring back Guinness as the official sponsor of the race which was successful. Our intention was to give the race the bloom it deserves. First, the race received the widest publicity and the turnout of both nationals and foreigners to watch the race was massive,” Motomby said.
Reacting to the increase in the prizes, Motomby said, “For a young man to go up the mountain and back and go home with 3 million is negligible. First, because these athletes belong to clubs and they have coaches. By the time the club and the coach get their share, the athlete is left with virtually nothing. So it was a plea to Guinness to step up the prizes and the company conceded to this plea. This was greatly applauded by the Cameroonian public. It is my wish that we step up the prize in 2015 from 10 million to something higher to enable an athlete change his/her life.” He said they are also anticipating to have more tourists because “not just are we going to be advertising the race, but we would be advertising the reunification monument, the mountain hotel and other new tourist sites in Buea. In addition, we had some setbacks in 2014 since we started the preparations a bit late, reason why we are starting preparations this March for the 2015 race so that we would have 10 months to prepare well.”
Questioned on the environmental state of the mountain after the race, Motomby said, “We are very much aware of the negative effects plastics and bottles used by athletes can have on a natural environment like the mountain; that is why there was a committee in charge of cleaning the race track before the athletes went up and down. The Inspector General at the Governor’s office who was in charge of the payment committee instructed all cleaners to make sure all the plastics and bottles dropped by athletes along the lane were removed before they could receive their payment.” 
Motomby congratulated all the winners and had special words for the Queen Mother of the Mountain, Sarah Etonge, who retired after participating in the race for 25 years. 
“Sarah is comfortable now especially after government finally gave her a house. She is one of those sportswomen who have made Cameroon proud. She has a record in semi-marathon in Gabon that has not been beaten. She went to Switzerland and France and created records. She has gone into the annals of history. We wish her well but she becomes an ambassador of the race. With Guinness I am sure that every year when we organise the race, she will have a special envelop just to encourage her,” Motomby added.