Finally! Eldoret City marathon relaunched with backing from woman representative Gladys Shollei

ATHLETICS Finally! Eldoret City marathon relaunched with backing from woman representative Gladys Shollei

Abigael Wafula 14:00 - 11.03.2024

New dates have been confirmed for the 5th edition of the Eldoret City Marathon after it was postponed three times last year.

New dates have been announced for the 5th edition of the Eldoret City Marathon with Uasin Gishu Woman representative Gladys Shollei exuding confidence that they would finally host the marathon.

Last year, the event was postponed three times and it eventually did not happen but the race organisers have started 2024 on a high, announcing the new dates of the race and assuring that it will happen.

The race was initially scheduled for April last year but it was pushed to June. It was, later on, pushed to Saturday, October 1, and two days before the event, it was postponed indefinitely. The 5th edition of the race has now been confirmed for Sunday, April 21.

At the time, race director Moses Tanui explained that the Uasin Gishu County Government withdrew from sponsoring the race, a move that affected them heavily and they were scouting for sponsors but unfortunately, there was a delay in the completion of the transaction to deposit the prize money required.

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Speaking during the relaunch of the event on Monday morning, Tanui noted that they want to give back to the community through the event and nurture the athletes.

“Eldoret is the city of champions and we have almost 99% of the athletes, world beaters, coming from Eldoret City. You can see the support from my colleagues and we said we can’t just go away before giving back to the community,” Tanui said.

Shollei said: “At the end of the day, we are going to have this marathon. At the moment, we don’t have all the money to host the event but we shall have it, I have the faith.

“Thank you to all of the sponsors who have already channeled their contributions to us and I want to thank all the athletes who compete and place our country on the world map.”

She also touched on the elections Athletics Kenya will host and warned the current office not to appeal the case. She added that Athletics in Kenya must be run by retired runners.

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