FACT CHECK: FELICIA ADETUTU NOT THE FIRST NIGERIAN TO FINISH IN 2023 LAGOS CITY MARATHON
What was claimed: Media outlets reported that Felicia Adetutu finished 10th and was the first Nigerian female runner to cross the finish line at the 2023 Lagos City Marathon held on February 4, 2023.
Our verdict: False. Deborah Pam was the first Nigerian woman to cross the finish line at the 2023 Lagos City Marathon.
CONTEXT
A tweet posted by Ladies in Sports falsely claimed that Felicia Adetutu was the first Nigerian to cross the finish line and won N14 million.
Sports journalist, Monsurat Olatunji also tweeted the false claim that Felicia Adetutu crossed the finish line as the first Nigerian.
Advanced Twitter search with TweetDeck also reveals that Makesense Promotions falsely claimed Felicia Adetutu wasn’t just the “first Nigerian woman to cross the finish line” she also finished 10th overall to earn “$2000 and N3 million respectively for both finishes.”
Using Google search with the keyword ‘Felecia Adetutu Lagos Marathon’, we found out that The Cable Newspaper made the same false claim in the seventh and eight paragraph of their race report.
The same search results also brought results showing the same false claim was made by The News, Brila, The Independent, The Heritage Times, The Source NG, Afro Sports, Pulse Sports and YouTuber Jimmy Jackson on Sparkling FM.
In a YouTube video posted on Arise News channel, Reuben Abati was quoted saying “Nigerians were celebrating Folashade Adetutu as the first Nigerian to cross the finish line, she came tenth” at 09:00-09:25 part of the Sport Segment show.
CONCLUSION
The official race results released by the World Athletics indicates that Deborah Pam finished 14th overall and was the first Nigerian female runner to cross the finish line in 2:49:43 and win N3 million.
The next Nigeria female to cross the finish line after Deborah Pam was Elizabeth Nuhu in 3:00:20, Blessing Solomon in 3:02:12 and Charity Agofure in 3:02:28 to win N2 million, N1 million and N500,000 respectively.
With the organisers prize list and World Athletics results, Kenya’s Catherine Cherotich finished 10th and won $2,000 not Nigeria’s Felicia Adetutu as claimed.
