Organisers of the Rock City Marathon have said the inaugural event is meant to honour the greatest marathoner Suleiman Nyambui. Nyambui, who earned Tanzania one of the two Olympic medals in the 1980s, hails from a small Mwanza's island called Ukerewe. Tanzania Tourist Board's marketing manager Geoffrey Meena said the 21-killiometre race also aims at unearthing many long distance runners in the lake zone.Apart from fostering athletics, Meena stressed that the race would help to promote plentiful tourist attractions that are available in the region. The event, which would attract hordes of runners from neighbouring countries, will take place on October 4 at the CCM Kirumba Stadium.
The official said they had already sent invitations to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. "We are determined to make it one of the biggest marathon events to be staged in East Africa, thus we'll advertise it as much as we can to win more foreigners," he said. "We've learnt from other countries like Brazil where they use sports to advertise their tourist attractions, so hopefully we can do it successfully as well."
Mwanza has a number of attractions like the Saa Nane Island, Rubondo and huge boulders around Lake Victoria. According to him, they set lower entrance fees and arranged for affordable accommodation in order attract many people to visit the Serengeti and Ngorongoro national parks. National Sports Council's (NSC) chairman Idd Kipingu called upon the organisers to stage such races all over the country if they want speedy development of the sport.
The event would also comprise the five-kilometre fun race, two-kilometre race for people with disabilities and three-kilometre corporate classic race.
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