Ghanaian athlete Raja Lagble placed second in the 5th edition of the Bank of Africa International Marathon in the Malian capital Bamako last Sunday. Participating countries for this year’s event included Mali, Kenya, Senegal, Madagascar, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Ivory Coast. The former student of Ho Poly made a time of 2hours 30mins to pick a cash prize of one thousand five hundred dollars. For the second time, Bank of Africa Group, Ghana sponsored two other Ghanaian athletes in addition to Raja. The other two athletes, Akakia Atempuri and William Akuka, placed 8th and 26th, respectively. Raja tells JOY Sports that with more competitions, long distance runners will excel in the country. “We the long distance runners in this country are talented and we need more competitions to put us on the World stage. Apart from the Milo marathon there is no standard race for us in this country which is killing us, but we thank Bank of Africa for this opportunity”, he told JOY Sports. The young runner has promised to win this year’s edition of the Milo marathon to prove his critics wrong.