Governor Amaechi of Rivers State has made Head coach of Rivers State cycling team, Emmanuel Onasanya 5 million richer courtesy of his winning the highest gold medals for Rivers State in the cycling event at Eko 2012 at Lagos State.
Governor Amaechi rewarded Team Rivers athletes that represented the state with cash reward on Friday 10th May, 2013 at the Alfred Diette Spiff sports complex.
Gold medalists were all given five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) for each medal, silver medalists were rewarded cash prize of three hundred thousand naira (N300,000), bronze medalists two hundred thousand naira (N200,000), fifty thousand naira (N50,000), to athletes that did not win any medal.
Coaches were also rewarded five hundred thousand naira in the order of their medals they won, just like the athletes.
Speaking to The Newswriter sports, highest Gold winning coach and head coach of Rivers State cycling Team who is also the chairman of Lifestyle Cycling Club in Port Harcourt, disclosed that he must be appreciative of the Rivers State government and the lifestyle cycling club for giving him all the support he needed to make this dream of winning the highest gold medals at Eko 2012.
According to him, it is no magic to him that he recorded the feat of becoming the highest medal winning coach because he trains everyday with his athletes either at club level or the state level, being determined and focused always, expecting this day to come, and finally it has come.
He pointed out that his result of becoming the top winning coach did not come to him as a surprise because he worked hard for it, adding that he toured with his athletes from Uyo to Port Harcourt and Uyo to Calabar, so for him to have garnered 10 gold medals out of 17 gold medals is a good feat for him to have achieved.
He made bold to say that he is excited that God had rewarded him through Governor Amaechi, saying that it is only God that could reward people through their hard works and today God has rewarded him through governor Amaechi, who sees his hard works through the years.
“I love cycling so much, it is a sport I love with my life, wherever I go, I used to go with my bike handing it on my car, no matter how beautiful the car may be.
On how he will spend his 5 million naira, he said, he borrowed money, waiting for this day to come and now it has come. He intends to pay off his debt and complete his building and pay his children’s school fees.
Meanwhile, governor Amaechi has told Team Rivers that second position will no longer be tolerated as the Team Rivers wait for the 19th National Sports festival in Calabar 2013.
In that regard, he charged the state Director of Sports to send him his budget for immediate camping, so that Team Rivers can maintain its former first position at 17th National Sports Festival, Garden City Games. ####
