All set for 17th edition of Nairobi Marathon

Athletics Kenya will deploy more than 200 technical officials to oversee this year’s Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon set for this Sunday.

Barnabas Korir, AK Chairman Nairobi branch said the event organizers are paying extra attention to the technical aspects of the city road race as they bid to have it promoted to the league of the world’s elite marathons.

The Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon is scheduled for Sunday 27th October 2019 at Nyayo with more than 20, 000 elite and fun runners expected to take part.

And in line with the international safety provisions, the Nairobi Traffic department on Tuesday released an elaborate road closure diversions schedule that will see traffic to and out of the city diverted to alternative roads between 4am and 2pm.

The affected roads include sections of Mombasa Road, Uhuru Highway, Upper Hill and Forest Road while within the CBD, Kenyatta Avenue, Muindi Mbingu and sections of Haile Selasie and University Way will also be closed.

“We do not expect a major disruption in the flow of traffic. We have carefully organized traffic diversions to ensure that Nairobi county residents have alternative routes to critical locations in the city including hospitals, churches and airports,” said Joshua Omukata, Traffic Commandant, Nairobi County.

The event organizers have announced a few changes to the route for the six race categories largely due to relocation of the start and finish points back to in and around Nyayo Stadium.

Speaking during a press briefing, Peter Gitau, the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee expressed optimism that the goal of raising Sh.60 million this year for the FutureMakers initiative will be attained.

“We have increased the prize money from Sh1.5m to Sh.2m for 42km, and from Sh. 150,000 to Sh 300,000 for 21km and we have noticed heightened interest from the elite and fun runners. So far, we have registered close to 18,000 participants and we are optimistic of reaching our target. There is a big uptake from both individuals and corporates entries. We expect this trend to boost the numbers towards achieving our target of 25 000 runners,” Gitau said.