ALL roads lead to Moshi town today as the Kilimanjaro Marathon 2020 takes centre stage with over 10,000 runners expected to take part in the prestigious event.
The marathon is going into its 18th year and this is one of the most popular of the exotic global marathon destinations and is an unusual mix of rural African highland scenery and top flight international runners.
It has brought a whole new level of competition, international glamour to the sport of road running in Tanzania.
The race is run under the watchful eye of Mount Kilimanjaro, with the altitude gain being quite manageable and with the entire race being completed between 830–1150m, on good tarred roads.
The Kilimanjaro Marathon Race Director, John Bayo said that this time the online registration worked out so well with more than 90 per cent of participants in the 42kilometres and 21 km races registering on time.
“The turnout is huge and we are looking forward to yet another big and exciting event on Sunday (today) at the Moshi Cooperative University,” said Bayo.
Bayo said the event brings together over 56 nationalities including a strong contingent from Kenya, who have dominated long distance running for the past four decades.
He also said that Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Hamisi Kigwangalla is expected to be the guest of Honour during this year’s Kilimanjaro Marathon event.
Bayo said Kigwangalla will be hosted by his counterpart, who is the Minister for Information, Culture as Sports, Harrison Mwakyembe as the two look forward to promote sports tourism through the Kilimanjaro Marathon.
“We expect participants from more than 56 countries worldwide hence this is the best platform for the two ministers to promote sports tourism. This is an honour to us as organisers and we look forward to a successful event,” said Bayo.
Official sponsors for this year’s event include Kilimanjaro Premium Lager, TIGO, Grand Malt, Kilimanjaro Water, TPC Limited, Simba Cement, Unilever, Barclays Bank(now Absa Bank Tanzania Limited) while the official suppliers are Kibo Palace Hotel, Keys Hotel, GardaWorld Security, Precision Air, CMC Automobiles.
The race will be held at the Moshi Cooperatives University and will play host to an IAAF route measured 42km Marathon, a 21km Half Marathon and a 5km Fun run.
