*****PRESS RELEASE*****
THE SAFARICOM MARATHON
Saturday 2nd July 2005

Records broken at the Safaricom Marathon

Records were broken at the 6th Safaricom Marathon held today at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Northern Kenya.

Daniel Yego showed impressive form by breaking the course record by 3 minutes to win the men’s full marathon race in a time of 2hrs 22.14. He was chased all the way to the finish by Erastus Thumbi, who finished in a time of 2hrs 22.43 and Albert Matebor, who came home in 2hrs 23.01. For Yego it was his first visit to Lewa, which is widely regarded as one of the ten toughest marathons in the world. Joshua Chelanga, who was ranked 6th in the world last year, finished a disappointing sixth on this notoriously hilly course.

This year’s event attracted a record field of 650 runners from over 20 countries, including a number of world class athletes, such as World Marathon Record Holder, Paul Tergat, and Kenyan team member for the forthcoming World Championships in Helsinki, Joseph Riri - both men using the half marathon as an ideal training opportunity.

The women’s full marathon Judy Kariuki set a blistering pace to win in a new record time of 2hrs 53.51, an improvement of 8 minutes on the previous course record held by Callen Areba who finished ninth today. Second place was claimed by Jane Omoro in a time of 2hrs 54.58.

This unique event, which is organised by the UK based conservation charity, Tusk Trust, in conjunction with Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, is primarily staged as a key fundraising event to support a wide range of community development programmes, local schools, hospitals, and conservation initiatives. Since the first race in 2000, the Safaricom Marathon has raised over US $ 700,000. Today’s race is expected to generate well over $100,000.

The men’s half marathon race was won by Joseph Nganga in a time of 1hr 06.52 whilst Kenyan international Joseph Riri finished second in a time of 1hr 07.05, while Paul Tergat finished in 18th spot. Paul Tergat said after the race, ‘I really enjoyed running here again today. The Lewa event is unique – where else in the world can you run amongst wild animals in such a beautiful place? I was not on form, but today was more training and raising money for the beneficiaries’

The former winner of London and New York Marathons, Joyce Chepchumba was also not extending herself but using the event as a training run. She lost her Lewa half marathon title and was convincingly beaten into third by Cecilia Wangui who finished in a time of 1hr 21.30 and Loice Kangogo who finished in second place.

Other high profile entries included Henry Wanyoike, the double Olympic Gold medallist blind runner who finished 54th in a time of 1hr17.43.

The race was flagged off by the Hon. Ayacko, Minister of Sport. Among the other VIP guests at this increasingly popular event were the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Tourism and the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources.

Meanwhile the larger animals found on Lewa, such as elephant, buffalo, and rhino, were kept at a safe distance by a large team of armed rangers, a helicopter and a light aircraft, which provide permanent aerial surveillance and gently shepherded away if they began to take too close an interest! Nevertheless many runners reported close encounters with zebra, impala and giraffe.

Among the hundreds of ‘fun runners’ taking part were a number of corporate teams, including 50 Safaricom staff who raised a staggering Ksh 6.5 million for the good causes supported by the event. The winning corporate team was Vitacress.

Saturday 2nd July 2005