Author: YASINTA AMOS
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE annually staged Mount Meru Half-Marathon will now run on October 11th 2020, but this time, the event will also include cycling showdown.
Previously, the Marathon was scheduled to take place on September 27th , 2020 but the date had to be pushed forward to allow more participants, especially those from other countries to get out of the Covid-19 lockdown, according to the new race Director, Mercy Ntabago.
This year’s event, according to the source, targets to seriously promote tourist attractions found in the region.
According to Ntabazo, they expect to see more than 2000 participants from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
There will be 100 young runners as well as 100 bike riders besides the main race.
“Part of the prizes include a package to tour some of the region’s best attractions, in addition to cash prizes” she explained adding that the race will also support the ‘free education’ initiative through offering midday meals to some schools.
This time the event will be conducted in form of ‘Olympic’ combining other activities such as bicycle racing, while prizes will cover even the young participants.
Still, according to her, the newly revived marathon is sticking to the 21km ‘Half Marathon which will be flagged off at Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium in the City. Also to be staged alongside the main event is the 10km race.
But the older version of the Mount Meru Marathon, which was always billed to be the most popular sporting event in Tanzania during the 1980s and the 90s was 42km full marathon.
Ntabazo stated here that the routes will remain the same as last year and the organisers will unveil the full list of participants late next month.
Focusing on tourism promotion, the race organisers also intend to take participants to any of the following destinations especially the Arusha National Park located at the foot of Tanzania’s second highest peak, the Mount Meru, which the event is named after.
It is still yet to be known whether last year’s winners will return again to fight for and defend their respective crowns in the next month’s marathon.
Last year’s top winner of Mount Meru Marathon 2019 was Robert Ndiwa from Kenya who clocked 1 hour 6 minutes and 26 seconds. Joshua Sule from Arusha, was second after using 1 hour 7 minutes and 4 seconds.
Elisha Wema came third with 1 hour 8 minutes with one second, while for the women runners it was Asha Salum.
