NAIROBI, Kenya, July 2 – The Nairobi City Marathon, earlier scheduled for July 7, has been postponed until September 8 over what Athletics Kenya (AK) describes as ‘unavoidable external circumstances’ beyond their control.
The federation’s president, Jack Tuwei, said they made the decision after extensive deliberations with stakeholders, including athletes who had already registered for the race.
“The postponement has been occasioned by unavoidable, external circumstances beyond the control of the organising committee. Thousands of athletes who had already registered for the event have further proposed that it be shelved to another date to enable them prepare well,” Tuwei said.
Tuwei further expressed his apologies over the sudden change of plans and acknowledged any inconveniences visited upon would-be participants who have been preparing for the event.
“We apologise to anyone who had expended resources and time preparing for this marathon and empathise with the inconvenience brought upon you by the sudden change of plans,” he said.
Nonetheless, he assured the local organising committee (LOC) will leverage on the postponement to put in place building blocks for a successful and memorable event come September 8th.
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This postponement provides us with the opportunity to put in place measures to ensure a bigger and better edition than the previous two.
For interested participants, use this extended period to continue registering for the marathon and training for it,” Tuwei said.
Slight route changes
At the same time, the technical committee have announced changes to the route, which will see the start line at Kenyatta Avenue (behind Serena Hotel) rather than Aerodrome Road as was the case last year.
Furthermore, the finish point will be at Uhuru Park and not Nyayo Stadium.
The race’s technical director, George Kariuki, said the change was necessitated by challenges experienced by athletes at the start line in last year’s edition.
“That area around Kenyatta Avenue is large enough for as many as 30,000 participants. Last year one of the challenges we had with the start line was that it could not adequately accomodate the thousands of participants who had registered to compete,” Kariuki said.
Due to security reasons, Parliament Road has also been scrapped as part of the route.
This year’s edition — the third of its kind — will feature the following categories of competition: 42km; 21km; 11.7km and the 4km family fun run.
