NAIROBI, September 3 -The Gusii Safaricom golden series will start on Friday with 500 athletes taking part in the Kisii 10k road race.
The Kisii road race will be followed by the Gucha road race on 3rd of October and Kebirigo road race which is scheduled for the 7th of November.
For the fourth year running, mobile phone service provider, Safaricom will sponsor the series to the tune of Sh2 million.
for 10km road races scheduled in Kisii, Gucha and Nyamira Districts.
Speaking at a Nairobi hotel on Wednesday, Joseph Ogutu, Safaricom’s chief Human Resource Officer said the firm was delighted to be associated with the series.
“We are proud to once again sponsor the Gusii series as it’s a very popular event in Kisii as it gives people in the rural areas a chance to see the established athletes compete in their own neighbourhood,” Ogutu said.
He urged other companies to come forward in developing all sports disciplines in order to unearth talent at the grass root level and give the youth an opportunity to excel and establish their career.
“This is an opportunity for young upcoming talent to compete with the best in all sporting activities and we need the corporate world to be at the forefront in developing a sporting nation”, he added.
Winners of the Kisii and Gucha road races will receive Sh15, 000 while the winner of the Kebirigo road race will get a jackpot of Sh50, 000 for both men and women.
Chairman of Nyanza South athletics branch Peter Angwenyi hailed the sponsorship saying it will give young upcoming athletes a chance to participate in the golden series on Friday.
“Kebirigo sponsorship has done so much for the people of Kisii. This year we delayed the series to avoid going head to haed with the Olympics. Now we are back to give a chance to athletes from the area of competing against each other nad hopefully we shall unearth a new potential star”,Angwenyi said.
The series is organized by Kebirigo Athletics Club, and was first organised six years ago geared at nurturing grassroots athletic talent in Nyanza Province. Two years later Safaricom took over as sponsors.
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