Eight women and men were rewarded with cash among other prizes for emerging winners in a cycling race held in Arua town on Saturday morning.
The race attracted hundreds of female and male riders who competed in 15 and 25kms respectively. Jimmy Abiti, a bicycle bodaboda cyclist from Katrini Sub-county emerged the overall winner to go home with Shs 400,000 and a ready pay solar kit.
Abiti, who has been transporting people on a bicycle to earn a living for the past ten years, rode in a pair of slippers and maintained half a kilometer margin till the finishing line. The bicycle race that started at MTN Service Center on Adumi road saw Eunice Miru from Adumi sub-county wining the women race.
While presiding over the race, Robert Kakooza, the competition secretary at the Cycling Federation of Uganda said that as a sport, cycling is under-served yet it has the potential of putting Uganda on the global scene.
“MTN’s initiative to interest the public in cycling will go a long way in promoting the sport,” noted Kakooza, who encouraged the public to embrace cycling as a sport to promote good health and fitness. Valery Oketcho, the MTN-Uganda Corporate communications manager said that in choosing to include cycling among the action attractions to the Expos was due to the fact that besides the health and fitness benefits derived, it forms a daily part of many Ugandans’ lives. “By adding a competitive element to it, we sought to reward excellence and further tap into the excitement and unifying factor that the event would bring out of our customers everywhere we go,” he said.
Okecho commended the Cycling Federation of Uganda for the high level of professionalism exhibited in organizing the bicycle races at the MTN at 20 Expos. To celebrate its 20 years of existence in the country, MTN Uganda has been holding regional expos in major towns such as Kabale, Gulu, Lira, Fort Portal,
Mbarara and Arua. Other districts set to host the expo include Hoima and Mbale as part of most anticipated activities of the three day event that has so far happened in six districts. The MTN expo will be in Hoima this week with another bicycle race.
