Eldoret City Marathon marks fifth edition

Eldoret City Marathon race director Moses Tanui has urged athletes to try their luck at becoming instant millionaires by entering the annual road race.

The fifth edition of the marathon will be held this Sunday in the Uasin Gishu capital that is on the brink of being declared a city.

“We are on the final stretch in our preparations for the marathon and I would like to urge athletes who didn’t get races this year to turn up and register because they can come as any other athlete and go back home a millionaire,” Tanui said on Tuesday.

The Eldoret City Marathon has one of the biggest pay purse in Africa with winners in the men’s and women’s race walking away with Sh3.5 million each. The top 20 athletes in both categories will win cash awards.

“Last year we had some small hiccups but we have overcome them and everything is in place. We have new sponsors and we want to give the athletes the best opportunity to compete and launch their international careers,” said Tanui.

The race director, a two-time Boston Marathon champion, said he wanted to stage a race that will be associated with local runners and community.

He said athletes who have been training for long and have not had an opportunity to enter races abroad that offer bigger prize money had a chance to showcase their talents on the streets and Eldoret and be identified by scouts.

“We have had four editions and as we celebrate five years, we want to make the Eldoret City Marathon big. We are glad that even international athletes are registering to come and compete in the race.”

Tanui said registration will close on Wednesday and athletics can start picking their bib numbers on Thursday. 

The marathon will be run on a new course that has been certified by Athletics Kenya.

The marathon will start at Highlands Inn and finish at Zion Mall.

Gulf Royal and Economic Global Holding from United Arab Emirates have come in as the new sponsors of the race.

The Middle East-based company has signed a five-year partnership deal with Eldoret City Marathon that will see them establish a state-of-the art training facility as part of efforts to develop the abundant talent in the region.

The Eldoret Marathon has catapulted several little-known athletes to successful international careers.
For instance, Judith Korir finished second in the 2021 women’s race behind her training mate Mercy Kiplagat.

Korir would later be named in Team Kenya’s marathon squad for the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA where she went on to bag a silver medal in a personal best time of 2:18:20.

Organisers will release the elite entry list on Thursday.