Rwanda Athletics Federation (RAF) has praised Salome Nyirarukundo and Noel Hitimana following their historic wins at the 14th Kigali International Peace Marathon. 

The 2018 edition of the glamorous athletics event took place  Sunday, attracting over 8,000 participants from all corners of the world.

The duo of Nyirarukundo and Hitimana, both affiliated to APR Athletics Club, won gold medals in the women and men’s half marathon, respectively, the first time Rwandan athletes had won two gold medals in the annual race since 2005 when the annual event was first staged.

Nyirarukundo retained the women’s half-marathon crown after covering the 21km race in one hour, 28 minutes and 53 seconds, making her the first athlete to win two gold medals in two consecutive years in Kigali International Peace Marathon.

On the other hand, teammate Hitimana became the second Rwandan athlete to claim gold in the men’s half marathon after legendary long distance runner Dieudonné Disi, who became the first local athlete to do so – at the 2006 edition. 

"We are glad that the event was a success for our athletes. There was a big improvement compared to the previous editions, it was the first time that, as a country, we won two gold medals from the event. This shows improvement on the part of our athletes,” RAF president Fidele Mubirigi told Times Sport after the event. 

He added: "This motivates us to keep working hard, especially in  nurturing athletes that can successfully compete in the full marathon where we still lag behind as today’s (Sunday) results show. Full marathoners are still few in Rwanda and its one area we were are going to put a lot of emphasis.”

In full marathon, it was again a Kenyan affair as the trio of Kibet Elkana Yego (02:23:42), Kenneth Rono Kibet (02:23:52) and Jonesn Omari (02:24:35) clinched gold, silver and bronze medals in the men’s category, respectively.

In the women’s category, another Kenyan trio of Beatrice Rutto Jepkorir, Caroline Jeruto, and Priscilla Chelangat finished in first, second and third in that order.

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