Record cash prize for Nairobi Uhuru Classic

Uhuru Classic Nairobi City Marathon will be inaugurated on May 8 with overall winners taking home Sh6 million, a record prize money on African soil.

The prize purse is better than what is offered at some major global competitions like the London and Berlin Marathons and slightly lower than that of the Chicago, Boston and Tokyo marathons.

Presently, the only full marathon staged in Nairobi is the Standard Chartered Bank Nairobi Marathon where both men’s and women’s category winners pocket Sh1.5 million each.

“This is a legacy marathon that will run for the next 10 years,” Cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohamed disclosed during the media launch yesterday in Nairobi.

On the prospect of having top world athletes coming to run in Kenya, Amina reiterated the country’s capability to stage major events. City marathons

“We have always watched our athletes win some of the world’s major city marathons but it’s now time we watched it happen here in Nairobi,” added Amina.

The launch was attended by defending World Marathon champions Ruth Chepng’etich and Lawrence Cherono. The duo will lead the Kenyan marathon assault at the World Championships in Oregon, United States in July.

“It has always been our dream to host a major marathon and I want to announce that a cabinet memo has gone through and the country will have its firstever city marathon,” Amina said while thanking various ministries for their support toward the race.

Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei said that the marathon will snake through the Expressway whose construction is almost complete. Tuwei noted that apart from the full marathon (42km) there will be three other subsidiary races; half marathon (21km), 10km and 5km. “

The full marathon will start at Nyayo Stadium then go to the JKIA before coming back through the Expressway, then divert to go through the city centre before proceeding to ABC in Westlands and back to Nyayo Stadium for the finish,” he said.

Tuwei added that 32km will be done on the elevated road and 10km on the ground. Tuwei clarified that the course has been fully measured adding that as part of World Athletics’ pilot programme to measure and analyse air quality at sporting venues around the world, four air quality sensors will be fixed at different joints during the marathon.

“All records that will be broken here will be recognized,” he said. “Registration for the event will open immediately online after the event is officially launched in days to come,” concluded Tuwei.