Nairobi Marathon Shows Even Kenya's Yuppies are Born to Run
 

By PETER NJENGA

Last week, the Nairobi marathon made a giant stride towards attaining a the status of such prestigious events as the London, New York, Berlin and Chicago marathons. 

Over 10,000 runners, ranging in age from seven to 75, poured into the streets of the capital on a chilly, wet Sunday morning, to take part in the largest sporting event in the country so far.

True to the theme of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon, "Born to Run," Kenyans of all walks of life who conquered the course vowed to return next year to better their times.

The name to remember is obviously Chemokil Chilapong, a 27-year-old mother of four from a marginalised area of the northern Rift Valley who walked home with $13,000 after coming first among women runners. 

The total cash prize kitty was $63,000; so far, this marathon is the highest paying to individual winners in local sports. 

Yuppie Kenyans, now convinced that running is cool and no longer a preserve of the "turbo-charged" youth from the Rift Valley, were more than happy just to conquer the course, demanding as it may be, compared with the treadmills and weight machines they are accustomed to in their air-conditioned health clubs. 

The organisation of the marathon was a notch tighter this year, with roads closed to traffic, security guaranteed and medical care provided with military precision, which lend credence to the fact that where there is a will, there is way.

Next year, a record 20,000 competitors are expected, better regional teams, especially from Tanzania, which fielded a team from Arusha. The team, however could not measure up to the young Kenyans, who have a strong belief in their running prowess. 

It is to be hoped that the Standard Chartered Marathon becomes as popular as the Safari Rally, which was once considered Kenya's premier sporting event. Although the race had notable flaws like poor provision of results and progress of the race electronically, the organisers did a better job than last year. 

Live television coverage could be the next challenge to overcome. This however depends on whether TV channels become convinced of the commercial viability of the marathon. 

By offering almost as much prize money a other city races, foreign runners are bound to be enticed. Second and most important, top rated Kenyans now have an incentive to train and run at home, well aware of competition from the never-say-die rookies. 

Chilapong is one good example. The other is Benjamin Kemboi who won the men's event in a surprisingly fast time of 2 hours 11 minutes 50 seconds, smashing last year's course record set by Philip Kirui by almost four minutes. 

Kemboi was running his second marathon, having come fourth in the world military games last year in Italy.

The government did not fail to see the potential of the marathon as one way of promoting the country's image abroad at a time when tourism was on the rise. The president was at hand to flag off the runners.

Highlights of the marathon will be screened this week on the South Africa pay channel, SuperSport, while a 10-minute production of the same was aired on private and state-owned stations last week. 

The Nairobi marathon has twinned with similar events in Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong. 

The success of the marathon, came hot on the heels of the Athens Olympics, when participants were handsomely rewarded with cash and electronic goods by the government and the private sector. Athletics is now the sport to promote and the Export Promotion Centre has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Athletics Kenya to use the sport as the vehicle to promote Kenyan products.

Peter Angwenyi, the race director of the Great Lakes Marathon in Kisumu, suggested, that Kenya and East Africa could do with more races in other regions away from the capital. The Kisumu race is expected to attract the Great Lakes region athletes of Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

The Arusha Marathon, which has routinely attracted Kenyan runners, would also encourage distance running in the Mount Kilimanjaro region.

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