Kilimanjaro Marathon 2022 launched in Moshi

Moshi. The 20th edition of the prestigious Kilimanjaro Premium Lager Marathon 2022 has been launched in Moshi Town one month prior to the annual event.

The event, which brought together various stakeholders, was hosted by the Kibo Palace Hotel- one of the official suppliers of the Kilimanjaro Marathon.

Speaking during the launch, the Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner Stephen Kagaigai lauded the sponsors and organisers for putting together a big event that has been in existence for 20 years now and continues to attract thousands of participants and spectators.

Sponsors for this year’s 20th Anniversary event include Kilimanjaro Premium Lager, Tigo- 21km, and Grand Malt -5km.

Water table sponsors are Absa Tanzania, Unilever Tanzania, TPC Sugar, Simba Cement, Kilimanjaro Water and official suppliers, GardaWorld Security, Keys Hotel, Kibo Palace Hotel, CMC Automobiles and Surveyed Plots Company Ltd (SPC).

“This is a big event that benefits Kilimanjaro region, neighboring regions and the nation as a whole as there is a lot of foreign exchange earned through the activities before and after the marathon,” said the Regional Commissioner.

He said the regional government will continue to work closely with the organizers and sponsors to ensure the event continues to grow in a bid to improve sports tourism in the country as he appealed to other marathons to emulate the good work by Kilimanjaro Marathon.

“We appreciate the way you are very organized as this gives us easy time as government to chip in since you plan most of the things early. This really makes our job easy as we are able to prepare well in terms of security and other logistics before, during and after the marathon,” he said.

On her part, the Kilimanjaro Premium Lager Brand Manager, Irene Mutiganzi, who also doubles as the Grand Malt Brand Manager, said this is a milestone for her brand which has been sponsoring the event since inception 20 years ago and they have been inspired by among other things the kind of support that the Kilimanjaro Marathon has for tourism and Tanzanian culture as a whole.

She said they are well prepared for the 20th Anniversary of Kilimanjaro Premium Lager Marathon with exciting events throughout the Marathon weekend and have set aside Tsh 22 million in prize money with the top winners in both the male and female category walking home with Tsh 4 million each and the first Tanzanian male and female in the 42km race will receive a motivational prize of Tsh 1.5 m each.

The Tigo zonal Director, Henry Kinabo said: “As the sponsors of the 21 km category famously known as the TigoKili Half marathon for over 7 years now, we are looking forward to an exciting 2022 race which will bring together over 5,000 runners, including elite runners from across the African continent.”

He called on participants to use TigoPesa to register as this has made the registration process easy and fast. “Runners who do not have Tigo lines can request their friends to register for them," he said.

The organizers also called on participants to register early as registration will be closed on February 7, 2022 or when entries are full but entries for the 5km run will be available up to February 26, 2022. “There will be number collection centres in Dar es Salaam (Mlimani City), Arusha (Kipo Palace) and Moshi (Moshi Cooperatives University-MoCU),” said the organizers adding that the race number collection will begin during the last week of February 2022.

According to the organizers, for the first time, they will host the Kili Expo (The People’s Expo) where sponsors and other stakeholders will get the chance to showcase their products and services for three days from February 24-26, 2022 at the MoCU grounds.

 “The expo is also meant to give the public a true Kili Marathon experience and we will also have number collection this time happening at MoCU and not Keys Hotel as it used to happen in the previous years,” said the organizers.