Cash prizes

1st Frw1000.000m

2nd Frw 510.000

3rd Frw. 300.000

4th Frw.150.000

5th Frw. 75.000

Rwanda’s marathon champion Felix Ntirenganya(Pictured) led the national team to this year’s MTN International Marathon slated for this Sunday in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

The 12-man team, which had only one female athlete left for Kampala yesterday morning by road.

Rwanda’s athletes will have only two days to aclimatise to the Kampala weather conditions before the race unfolds.
Ntirenganya will be Rwanda’s best hope despite finishing a distant 12th in this year’s national marathon race, which attracted some of the top athletes from the region.

The Police athletics club ace ran the 42kms in 2:27:10 but he is confident about putting on a better show in Kampala.

Rwanda is among the seven countries invited to be part of the event, others are Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and hosts Uganda.

The event, which marks the end of the local athletics calendar, has always been held in November but Uganda Athletics Federation postponed it by three weeks to give way to the just concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

A record 6,015 runners have registered for the event, beating last year’s number by a whopping 2,000 participants.

Organizers of the event are hoping to raise over 30 million Ugandan shillings (about $18,000) to help expectant mothers living in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps in war-ravaged northern Uganda.

Kenyan Isaiah Kosgei won last year's full marathon in a new course record of 2 hours 18 minutes and 8 seconds ahead of Ugandan Amos Masai. Rwanda finished outside the top ten winners.

Rwanda team: Médiatrice Nyirarangwa (Nas), Félix Ntirenganya (Police), Eric Mazimpaka (Police), Fred Twahirwa (APR), Jean Baptiste Ruvubi(Nas) Evariste Twahirwa (Nas), Elie Ndayizeye (Gatenga), Sumaili Sayidi (PUMA), Abdallah Habyarimana (Puma), Selemani Niyonshuti (Puma), Patrick Ishaka (Puma) and Paul Kaitana (Gatenga).
Ends