The annual Sierra Leone Marathon (SLM) race organized by Street Child, a local non-governmental charity organization is set to return on June 5 this year in the northern region city of Makeni, the Race Director Alusine Kanu has confirmed to Awoko Newspaper.
Kanu says the NGO and its partners are super thrilled to ensuring the return of the traditional fund raising Marathon Race that has over the years been attracting both local and international athletes around the world.
“We’re bringing back the Sierra Leone Marathon with a bang in Makeni on June 5, 2022 with new partners, and there will also be new customized jerseys with the tri-(Green, white and blue) national colors of Sierra Leone plus other designs for every runner who signs up, at the same time the champions prizes up for grab for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place best athletes will be new and bumpy,” he assured.
Regarding changes in the various categories of the events and the registration cost, Kanu replied: “Everything remains the same except for the champions prizes and awards that will be slightly increased.
“Across all fours categories of the SLM event namely the 5kilometers, 10kilometers, half and full marathon both male and female athletes wanting to sign up will be charged the sum of Le 25,000, Le 35,000, Le 45,000 and Le 55,000 respectively while international runners will be charged the sum of Le 250,000 each to participate in either the 5kilometers or 10kilometers race and the sum of Le 500,000 and Le 1,000,000 respectively for the half and full marathon.”
He also disclosed that over 15 local and about 90 international runners have signed up for different races in this year’s event since the registration window was opened last week.
Kanu, during the interview with Awoko Newspaper, invites persons wanting to sign up for any race category to visit the Street Child’s club house bar in Makeni to register and prepare to compete on June 5.
Jamie Stiachan is one of this year’s event volunteers from the United Kingdom who’ve already settled in Makeni, in the Northern part of Sierra Leone. Speaking to Awoko Newspaper, he said: “the Sierra Leone Marathon is not just about running and raising funds to improve the lives of Street Children in Sierra Leone but a platform to also share the impact of the charity NGO (Street Child) and thus joined Kanu in soliciting support from the media among other development partners to making the event successful than ever before.”
The June 5, 2022 Sierra Leone Marathon will mark the 10th edition of the annual fund raising event for street children in Sierra Leone. It has also served as spring broad for local runners to showcase their running prowess while fostering and strengthening ties between local and international athletes over the years before it was forced to halt due to the outbreak of the global coronavirus.
Source: AIPS