NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 17 – Bronze medallist at the 2012 World Half Marathon Championships, Pascalia Chepkorir is latest entry for Saturday’s Lotto Foundation Baringo Half Marathon to take place in Kabarnet town.
Chepkorir, who has a personal best of 67:17 and ranked within the top 20 all-time for the distance, finished third last year and will be seeking to make the amendments at this year’s edition.
She has wealthy of experience in the 21km race, having won the Berlin Half Marathon, Nairobi Half Marathon, Udine Half Marathon and the CorridaInternacional de São Silvestre. She also features in the top ten all-time for the 10K run, with a best of 30:57.
Chepkorir will face stiff competition from Fukuoka Half Marathon runner up Edith Chelimo, who is the defending champion for the Baringo Half Marathon, Lucy Cheruiyot who finished second and Pamela Cherotich, a sister to former Olympic 5,000m bronze medallist, Edwin Soi, will be the other athletes to watch.
-Men’s field-
The men’s field will be led by defending champion Isaac Kipkoech. He will, however be pushed close by Josephat Kimutai who was second in Czech Republic Half marathon and third in Italia 21km race.
Kurui Chesang and Sammy Kurui, who placed second and third respectively, last year will be seeking to topple Kipkoech.
According to the race coordinator Simon Chebon, winners in this year’s edition will pocket Sh250, 000 up from last year’s Sh200, 000. He said prizes for the runners up and second runners up will remain at Sh100, 000 and Sh75, 000 respectively.
He noted that all the runners in the top ten positions in the main race will be rewarded. The organizers recently received a shot in the arm with gaming company Lotto pumping in Sh5m sponsorship up from Sh4m last year.
Lotto Foundation chairman Brian Walucho said he was delighted to be associated with the event, the continues to unearth world beaters.
“We are pleased to partner with such noble events because as a company, our ambition is to help grow sports in the country. Besides Baringo Half Marathon, we are also looking to venture into new ways of seeing sports grow,” he said.
“Among the items we are deliberating on is rehabilitation of infrastructure because we have noticed this is an area of concern,” he added.
The event will be graced by Baring Governor Stanley Kiptis who has promised more support for the event and sports in the county.