He died following a head trauma sustained in an accident during the second edition ‘Nocturne d’Ongola.
Tragedy has again struck the cycling federation. After the ex-president Moustapha Dogo, this time it was an athlete in the person of Yannick Yemeli Lontsi who died in active service. Yannick Lontsi died from head trauma sustained in accident during the cycling competition christened, ‘Nocturne d’Ongola which took place in Mvog-ada-Yaounde on Saturday May 28, 2016.
It was during the competition in the senior category that Lontsi in an attempt to avoid a mad lady who was on the race track, that he fell off his bike together with other cyclists and sustained a serious injury on the head. He was rushed to the Central hospital where his head was scanned revealing a trauma. “The next morning when we went to inquire about his situation”, said the president of the federation, we were told his health had degenerated and he was taken for reanimation. Despite frantic efforts from the doctors to save his life, he gave up the ghost just as he was about to be reanimated”, narrated the Honoré Yossi.
Yannick Lontsi was aged 27 when he passed away and was a member of the cycling national team as well as the SNH velo club considered to be the best in the country. According to the president of the federation, Honoré Yossi, the vacuum left by Yannick will be very difficult to fill given that he was a talented, calm and disciplined cyclists and it takes time to groom a cyclists of his calibre. He was among the best having represented Cameroon in many national and international competitions several times emerging lap winner in the Grand Prix International Chantal Biya and the international Cycling Tour of Cameroon.
He won the first lap of the Grand Prix Chantal Biya in 2014 and emerged overall third in the tour of Burkina Faso in 2013. He also took part in the tour of Cote d’Ivoire and was among the Cameroonian cyclists selected to defend the national colours during the last edition of the Amissa Bongo cycling race in Gabon. His death takes the count to four the number of sports personalities who have passed away within a month namely Patrick Ekeng, Christelle Djomnang and David Mayebi.
