The Akwa Ibom State Governor, His Excellency Udom Emmanuel has added another feather to his already hugely decorated sports cap as Mary Sunday Samuel, a teenage cyclist discovered by the governor is currently doing Nigeria proud at the World Junior Track Cycling Championships in Frankfurt, Germany, Igbere TV reports.
Igbere TV reports that 18-year-old Mary, a native of Etinan LGA was discovered at the first edition of Akwa Ibom Youth Sports Festival, held in the state.
Igbere TV gathers that Ms. Mary, a product of Etinan Institute, won a gold medal in Cycling at the state youth sports festival before moving on to become Nigeria’s national Track Cycling Junior Champion at last year’s National Sports Festival.
The teenage cyclist also emerged West African Regional Champion at the recently concluded African Track Championships in Abuja.
In April 2019, she was ranked fifth in Women Junior Time Trial Continental Championship by the United Cycling International (UCI) on 540.00 points having won four silver medals in the junior category of the Time Trial, Individual Time Trial, Sprint and Point Race events at Sax Young Cycling Track, Alexandria Park, South Africa, Igbere TV reports.
It would be recalled that following Nigeria’s dismal outing at the last Olympic Games in Rio, in 2016, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, pledged to discover a pool of young indigenous sports talents that will win medals for Nigeria at future international sports championships.
The star-studded Governor immediately walked the talk when he launched the first ever Akwa Ibom State Youth Sports Festival in 2017.
The success stories of the state-owned annual championships have hardly been told especially with this year’s edition only a heartbeat away. Coach Lawrence Iquaibom, the state Director of Sports when contacted by Igbere TV confirmed the latest development adding that ‘the best is yet to come’.
Therefore the state Ministry of Youth and Sports under the watchful eyes of Sir Monday Uko as commissioner, who has muscularly interpreted the sports dreams of the Governor thus far, must be commended for a job well done.
