AfricaPress-Tanzania: MWANZA Regional Commissioner John Mongella has officially launched the registration of athletes who will vie for this year’s Rock City marathon titles while calling on various stakeholders to actively participate in the preparation of the grand race.
The race is scheduled to rage on November 29th this year, starting and ending at the Rock City Mall in the Lake Zone’s biggest city.
Speaking during its inaugural ceremony in Mwanza, Mongella called on various stakeholders including participants and sponsors to come forward in large numbers to support the grand race whose agenda dwells on promoting local tourism in the Lake Zone.
On the occasion, it was witnessed the RC along with other senior officials in the region registering for the race.
“I emphasize on the participation of stakeholders from the Lake Region, especially in Mwanza Region because the race is ours,” said Mongella.
He further, commended the various institutions and organisations that have already emerged to make the race a huge success. He named them as TIPER, St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT), Pepsi, Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB), Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS), Chinese Construction company CRJE (East Africa) Ltd, Pigeon Hotel, CF Hospital, Bugando Hospital, Garda World, Nyasa EA and The Cask.
He also instructed all district councils in the region, through sports officials, to ensure that they encourage the registration of the race as much as possible so that the region can get enough representatives to reflect its position as the host region of the race.
“However, Mwanza Region has got a good record of producing great athletes in the country including the Olympic silver medalist, Suleimani Mjaya Nyambui. We need to maintain that status, let’s all stand together. Participants should show up in large numbers and sponsors should show up in large numbers as well, ” he added.
Speaking at the event, the Vice Chancellor of St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) Professor Costa Mahalu said the university was impressed by the race due to its determination in promoting Lake Zone’s tourism sector which goes hand in hand with the university’s mission in the sector.
“SAUT’s participation in the race is enormous and the participation will not only be limited to participating in the race but will also involve visiting and promoting various tourist attractions in the Lake zone,” he said.
During the event, apart from registration, the race coordinator Kasara Naftal handed over to the RC and other partners the T-shirts to be worn by the race’s participants noting that important preparations have already been made. The race will involve 21 km, 10 km and 5 km categories.
He said the registration for the race was going on through the race website as well as physical registration through various centres allocated in various regions including Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Geita, Simiyu, Shinyanga, Dodoma and Arusha.
“Registration is progressing well and the response from participants is overwhelming. The aim is to register at least 3000 participants in all categories that is elite runners, fun run participants and students. ” He said.
“As for the prizes, along with the medals the first winners of the 21 km men’s and women’s race will take 2m/- each, 1.3m/ – for the runners up and 700,000/- for second runners up. Those who finish from fourth to tenth positions will be awarded medals and cash prizes.”
“Further, we will not give out cash prizes for the 10km race winners, but the participants will get medals and t-shirts. The 5km race will involve participants from various institutions along with participants with albinism who will be awarded cash prizes to the three best runners,” he mentioned
