After a decade of entering, the elusive top prize of being declared national champion for the Jamaica Library Service’s National Reading Competition was finally copped by St. Ann parish champion Ugochukwu Durueke.

He is the 10 time St. Ann parish champion for the 21 and over adult category.

The icing on the cake is that the St. Ann Parish Library Network emerged the overall winner in this year’s staging of the competition, due to the parish champions in all 5 age group categories having the highest scores.

At yesterday’s awards ceremony in Kingston, Durueke walked away with prizes for best book review, best poetry analysis and highest overall score by an entrant.

Master of ceremonies Dahlia Harris announced the winner’s prizes.

In his acceptance speech, Durueke expressed appreciation to his family and the staff of the St. Ann Parish Library network for their support.

He also noted his involvement in various initiatives hosted by the JLS, mainly for youth development, and his plans to partner with an overseas based school to implement similar programmes.