Maria Umoibang

“I want to break records!” This simple sentence epitomizes the drive and determination Maria Umoibang brings to the track as she tries to follow in the footsteps of her older sister, Mercy, whom she considers a role model as far as running is concerned.

Having spent time accompanying Mercy to her training sessions, Maria who was born on 7th December 2004 also started joining her, and has shown great promise ahead of the future, making the duo the only set of siblings currently at the club.

Maria represented MoC for the first time at the 2018 National U-18 Trials as a 13-year old where she ran in the 100m heats. At the 2019 National U18 Trials, Umoibang who is MoC’s youngest athlete, showed tremendous improvement this time around as she won her heat with a new Personal Best (PB) and eventually made the finals.

The youngster continued to show great promise in the course of the season as she also improved on her times, leaving the 2nd MoC Grand Prix with PBs in the 100m and 200m.

In 2020, Maria continued from where she left off in 2019 and sped to a new PB of 12.16s at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All-Comers in Akure. Her aim is to break 12s for the first time before the end of the 2020 Athletics season!