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Participants at this year’s Family Group Eldoret Half Marathon slated for October 6 have reasons to smile after the organisers increased the sponsorship and winners prizes.
At the same time, the route for this year’s event has been changed with athletes set to run within Eldoret town unlike last year where the race started in the outskirts.
Family Bank Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rebecca Mbithi unveiled Sh12 million sponsorship for this year’s competition up from Sh10 million last year.
During the launch for this year’s race, Mbithi disclosed that each winner in the men's and women’s 21km (Half marathon) will pocket Sh350,000 each up from Sh250,000 last year.
The prize fund will cover top 10 finishers in the event that is expected to attract over 3,000 participants including defending champions; World Half Marathon record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei and Kevin Kiptum.
Mbithi said the sponsorship kitty has been boosted by the sister companies under the Family Group Foundation banner that brings together Family Bank, Daykio Plantations, Kenya Orient Insurance, Kenya Orient Life Assurance and Alpha Africa Asset Managers.
“Our commitment is in recognising and nurturing talent through athletics and bringing about transformation to our society,” said Mbithi adding that the proceeds from the race will once again go towards inclusive education especially autism at Sosiani Primary School, Eldoret.
Among those who attended the launch were Athletics Kenya (AK) president Jackson Tuwei, AK CEO Susan Kamau, World Half Marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor as well as the pair of Ruth Chepng’etich and Sally Chepyego, who are in the marathon team for the World Championships.
Tuwei praised the initiative saying that not only will it continue to provide sustainable education to special cases but also help tap athletics talent. “It’s not easy to organize a marathon and source out for sponsorship,” said Tuwei, who once again urged athletes to run clean and avoid performance enhancing drugs. “Let us all fight the menace since it not only destroys careers but lives too.”
Last year, close to Sh3 million was raised and most of it was directed towards the cause.
Mbithi revealed that they have renovated two classrooms and accommodated 44 pupils in the Special Needs Programme at Sosiani Primary School since taking up the cause in 2016.
“We hope to attract even more individual and corporate sponsors in this year’s marathon and give an opportunity to children living with autism to access quality education,” she added.
Registration kicked off at the launch with participants required to part with Sh1,000 fee. They can also register online via https://familygroupmarathon.com and at all Family Bank branches countrywide.
Other sponsors of the Marathon include; AAR Insurance, Brainwave Communications Limited, Maisha Water and Eldoret County.
