Multiple marathon races may cause sudden death, Abass Mohammed warns athletes

Athletes compete at 10km Road Race

Nigeria’s greatest marathon athlete of all time, Abbas Mohammad, is not comfortable with the risk being taken by the nation’s athletes, saying that their involvement in multiple Marathon races may cause sudden death.

From mid 1980s till the late 1990s, there was, perhaps, no more beloved and famous marathoner in Nigeria and the entire West Africa sub-region than Mohammed. He was almost the sole reason many Nigerians followed long distance races then. For almost three decades, Mohammed’s national record of 2:16:06 seconds, which he set on September 11, 1990 at a full marathon race in Lagos, remains unbroken.

Apart from dominating the national scene, Mohammed was able to stamp his authority at the international level, competing with world’s best marathoners at the Seoul ’88 Olympic Games, Rome ’95 World Military Games in Italy, as well as the 1997 Summer Universiade Games held in Italy’s famous city of Sicily. He also participated in the Great London Marathon in 1981 and the Los Angeles ’86 Marathon.

The marathon legend, who is currently Director of Sports, Nigerian Army in Borno State, said athletes engaging and competing in multiple full marathon races in a year risk sudden death. He said, “Training alone takes a lot from an athlete, then the actual competition. Most Nigerian athletes don’t have experienced nutritionists and therefore train and compete without good preparation. This could lead to sudden death.”

Mohammed, who was one of the Coaches from Army University that participated in the Training the Trainer seminar held in Gombe State during the week said it is dangerous having an athlete take part in more than three full marathon races in one year as it could lead to sudden