Nairobi County governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko on Sunday Morning flagged off the 2018 Standard Chartered Marathon at Uhuru Park where thousands of people participated.
The 21 km marathon flagged off by Sonko followed the wheel chair race that was also organized by the standard Chartered Marathon.
It’s a lovely day to run. @MikeSonko and @lamin_manjang prepare to flag off the first race. #StanChartMarathon pic.twitter.com/0d6PUASoD2
— Standard Chartered (@StanChartKE) October 28, 2018
‘All the money we raise grime the #stanchartmarathon goes to #seeingisbelieving’ @lamin_manjang pic.twitter.com/fyEkTL05Sc
— Standard Chartered (@StanChartKE) October 28, 2018
Nairobi Marathon is an annual road running competition over the marathon distance held in every month of October in Nairobi. The Marathon was first held in 2003.
As time went by, the competition expanded and now includes a half marathon race along with the main race.
It was part of “The Greatest Race on Earth”, fully sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank. The other three legs of this four-marathon race were the Hong Kong Marathon, the Mumbai Marathon and the Singapore Marathon.
The winners of the Marathon share a whopping Prize of 8,000,000 KES.
Since the launch of the Seeing is Believing initiative in 2003, the Bank has raised more than Sh250 million. Among the programmes funded so far include screening of 6.2 million people, 170,000 surgical interventions, training of over 2000 health workers and upgrading of more than 10 health facilities around the country.
Lamin Manjang, the bank’s CEO disclosed that the Bank has invested close to Sh100 million shillings in funding this year’s event. This includes more than Sh8 million prize money that will be awarded to the various winners in the competitive races.
The Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon 2018 has featured six race categories; 42km male and female, 21km male and female, 10km male and female, 21km wheelchair male and female, 5km Family Fun Run race and the popular 3km CEO challenge.