A total of 73.2 million will be shared by athletes in the 42 kilometer MTN Kampala Marathon slated for November 27 at Kololo airstrip.
The winners in the women and men’s marathon will get 16 million with a total value of 32 million. The runners will get 8 million shillings each with a total value of 16 million initially this was the prize money for last year’s winner with
MTN increasing that this year.
The local athletics federation UAF has changed the 42kilometer marathon and 21kilometer race to suit the professional requirements of a marathon most notably to prevent human and vehicle traffic from interfering with the athletes as was the case in the past editions.
42km Marathon Race:
1st Position men and women: 16,000,000
2nd Position men and women: 8,000,000
3rd Position men and women: 4,000,000
21km Half Marathon race (Individual)
1st Position men and women: 4,500,000
2nd Position men and women: 2,550,000
10km Race (Individual)
1st Position men and women: 1,500,000
2nd Position men and women: 800,000
“Instead of rotating the Kololo airstrip twice at the start of both the 42km and 21km races, that distance which is an equivalent of two kilometers has been moved to the stretch on the McKenzie valley that stretches to Malcolm X road,” explained Faustino Kiwa, the UAF organizing secretary.
The older route persistently caused interruption with people driving away from Hotel Africana as athletes used the route. However, the 10km route will be maintained.
The winners in the half marathon men and women walk away with 4.5 million which is total value of 9 million. MTN has sunk a total of 112.8 million to the marathon.
According to the organisers they will be appearance fees for elite athletes who participate in the marathon and the federation is set to send invitations to star athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.