Kenya’s Emma Muthoni wins the Standard Chartered Nairobi marathon and opening leg of the Greatest Race on Earth 2008/09/26 October 2008
Kenya’s Emma Muthoni set a blistering time of 2 hours 33 minutes 42 seconds to win the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon and take the opening leg of the fifth series of The Greatest Race on Earth GROE, the world’s leading marathon team relay series.
Philemon Yarasia made it a clean sweep for Kenya in the GROE, winning the men’s Nations Challenge in a time of 02.17.11 which was quick enough to earn him provisional 16th place overall in the marathon, which was won by Kenya’s Samson Kikwet.
The event in Nairobi saw 36 national teams, from a total of 24 different nations, kick off the race to win a share of USD 1 million, one of the highest guaranteed prize pools in world athletics.
The series moves on next to Singapore on 7 December, followed by Mumbai on 18 January and finishes in Hong Kong on 8 February. The GROE teams are made up of four runners and are represented at each leg by a different team member.
For the first time ever GROE is partnering with Seeing is Believing, the leading global initiative which tackles avoidable blindness and is a partnership between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
Seeing is Believing (SiB) has raised USD 17 million to date and aims to invest a further USD 20 million by 2014 into 20 urban areas to help 20 million people. The initiative will directly benefit from the race series with runners being encouraged to use their participation to raise awareness, as well as funds, for Seeing is Believing.
To help drive awareness for SiB a Visually Impaired (VI) All-Stars team is also GROE. Kenya’s triple Paralympic gold medallist Henry Wanyoike led off the relay with Brazil’s Alex Mendonca set to take over in Singapore. The baton will be passed to Yuichi Takahashi of Japan for Mumbai, before current Paralympic gold medallist and VI marathon world record holder Qi Shun of China finishes the series in Hong Kong.
Tracy Clarke, Standard Chartered Group Head of Human Resources and Patron of The Greatest Race on Earth, commented, “A huge congratulations to all runners that battled the tough running conditions in Nairobi – their determination to go the distance is an inspiration for all and every stride run on the marathon course was another step towards raising awareness for The Greatest Race on Earth’s new beneficiary Seeing is Believing.”
Former world marathon record holder Paul Tergat, former Boston Marathon winner Moses Tanui and Kenya’s Minister for Sport Helen Sambili were among the guests who cheered on the 15,000 runners which took part in the day.
Women’s Nations Challenge Review
Emma Muthoni got Kenya off to a flying start in GROE with victory in the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon. The 27 year-old finished in 2 hours 33 minutes 42 seconds over 10 minutes ahead of the second place finisher Triyaningsih Triyaningsih of Indonesia.
China’s Lulu Li who finished second overall in last year’s Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon and first in GROE, could only manage third in this year’s opening leg of the GROE, which was 13th overall in the marathon.
Men’s Nations Challenge Review
Philemon Yarasia took the opening leg of GROE to assert an early lead in this year’s men’s Nations Challenge for the defending Kenyan team. The 29 year-old set a time of 02.17.11 which was nearly 2 minutes ahead of the second placed Moses Cherop of Uganda.
Malkiad Binos Bayos of the United Republic of Tanzania ran a time of 2 hours 20 minutes 49 seconds to put his country’s team into third place of the men’s Nation Challenge.
View (Eng) Script | Download Low Res
TERMS OF USE:
- The footage acquired on Free-to-Air basis must be used for broadcast at least once within a reasonable period of acquisition.
Provision of time and length of broadcast should be supplied.
The broadcaster must also specify the scope of reach of broadcast, that is, the audience that they will be broadcasting. - Please Contact Us with the above details to get this video
