The Minsk (Belarus) half marathon and DuRun (Poland) 10K! course record holder Kenya’s Hillary Kiptum Maiyo Kimaiyo, moves from the Polish city’s achievement to add another feather on his cap by going for top honours in the inaugural Nairobi City Marathon dubbed “Uhuru Classic” on Sunday, May 8th, 2022.
The 28-year-old Kenyan established the course record with his 1:03:00 in 2017, just outside of his 1:02:41 personal best set in Gdynia, Poland, in the same year.
“I want to add another achievement in my marathon career by making history as the first person to win the Nairobi City Marathon . I hope to set the course record in my home country,” said Kimaiyo.
The 2018 Padua (Italy) marathon bronze medalist Ethiopia’s Desta Shume Tafa is among the legion of Africans in the Kenyan capital chasing for glory in Nairobi’s Express Highway.
The 2020 Muscat (Oman) marathon champion Kenya’s Pius Kimani Karanja will be returning to the city where he last performed poorly and try to improve on his disappointing 15th place finish in the Standard Chartered Nairobi marathon in 2019.
The race will be used to launch the newly built Nairobi Express Highway and celebrate the project as a legacy of Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta.
It will be the most highest paying marathon in Africa and compete against other city marathons in the world where the winner will bag Ksh6 million (US dollars 6000).
The second placed finisher will pocket Ksh 3.5 million (US dollars 35,000) while third athlete gets Ksh2.5 million (US dollars 25,000).
In the half marathon which is a 21km race, the winner will run away with Ksh250, 000 (US dollars 2,500) while the winner in the 10km race will earn Ksh150, 000 (US dollars 1,500).
According to organizers is that 10,000 runners have registered for the race which will have four categories namely marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km fun run.
The marathon will begin at the Nyayo National Stadium then head to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), then back before diverting to streets of Narobi which will cover 9km of the spectator stage where fans will be treated to fun by the athletes which will be outside the Super Highway.
From the Super Highway the race will enter Haile Selassie Avenue then move to the Central Business District (CBD), Moi Avenue, Kencom Bus Stage, City Hall Way, Taifa Road, Harambee Avenue, Parliament Road, Holy Family Basilica, Kimathi Street, Kenyatta Avenue, University Way, Globe Cinema Roundabout, Kipande Road, Ojijo Road, Museum Hill then connect back to the Express Highway.
On the Express Highway, the runners will then proceed to ABC Place in Westlands along Waiyaki Way the return back before exiting the highway at Bunyala Road before finishing the race at the Nyayo National Stadium.
The 21km race will start at the Nyayo National Stadium then head to Ole Sereni along Mombasa Road before heading to ABC Place before returning to the finish Nyayo and will entirely cover the Express Highway.
The 10km race will start at the Nyayo National Stadium the move to Capital Centre along Mombasa Road then go up to Musem Hill before heading to finish at the stadium.
Athletes for the full marathon will assemble at the start line at 7:45am before being flagged off by President Uhuru Kenyatta at 8am.
The half marathon will start at 7:30 before the 10km race beginning at 8:30am before the culmination of the day’s races with the 5km fun run at 9.00am.
The roads for the marathon will be closed on Sunday 8th, 2022 at midnight (12.00am) and will be re-opened later in the evening.
The Nairobi Police Traffic Commandant Joshua Omukata said police will be available to enforce the road closures and direct motorists accordingly.
He assured the organisers, athletics officials, runners, guests and fans of adequate security during the event.
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