Gapco ventures again in Kilimanjaro Marathon

Dar es Salaam. Preparations for the prestigious Kilimanjaro Marathon 2016 are in full swing as local and foreign runners are gearing up for the event to be held under the wings of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain.

Local and foreign runners are looking forward to another exciting moment that will bring more challenge than ever in the spectacular marathon experience.

The annual race, which is in the sporting calendar of the World’s governing athletics body, IAAF, attracts competent runners from Africa, Asia, America and Europe.

They will compete in among events, full marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km fun run.

Athletes with disabilities have been part of the race, competing for supremacy to earn deserving prizes.

Thanks to Gapco Tanzania, which will once again sponsor the athletes with disabilities, who will, supported starting with transportation, accommodation and other basic needs for them to participate in the event.

The goal of the support is to encourage their participation and enjoy adventure tourism since the event promotes domestic tourism.

Gapco Tanzania will sponsor the 10km Wheel Chair and Hand Cycle race, which includes nearly 7000 local and foreign runners with disability from over 45 countries.

The firm has been associated with Kilimanjaro Marathon since 2011 and has seen the event growing - every year, the reason why it has decided to renewed its sponsorship.

Firm’s Marketing manager Caroline Kakwezi says that they have been sponsoring the event since 2011 to date because of the support they have been receiving from the race organisers and loyal customers over the years.

“It is because of the continued support that we have been enjoying from the organisers and our customers who buy our products that we in turn manage to sponsor a section of the race,” she told Sport Extra.

She says they are looking forward to a more exciting 10-kilometre race compared to what was there last year and they will ensure that all the participants from Dar es Salaam get to Moshi safely and that they will be accommodated as safe places.

“This time around we plan on taking care of their transport and accommodation as part of the sponsorship to ensure they participate well,” she says stressing that they decided to do this since the race has been involving people with disability.

According to the official, they plan to spend up to Sh100 million for the event in this year.

This records an increase compared to previous years when the firm did sponsor athletes with disabilities.

“We have seen a continued growing of the event since we started to sponsor in 2011 and pleased with its impact on the participating athletes and the community.

“We are honoured to have the opportunity to work with the South African Wild Frontiers and Executive Solutions, as the organizers of the event in the promotion of athletic and domestic tourism,”

“This is because, the race promotes tourism as thousands of foreign runners have an opportunity to view Mount Kilimanjaro, and other attractions in the region and neighbouring ones,” she said.

Ms Kakwezi went on to say that the Kilimanjaro Marathon has become a landmark event that attracts local and international participants, hence giving a boost to the economy of Moshi residents. “The race promotes our tourism sector to increases awareness of tourist attractions like Mount Kilimanjaro along with increasing business for local business owners most of whom are involved in both small and medium scale enterprises,” she said.

She also hailed other sponsors of the marathon for making the event a success, giving a good platform to local runners to showcase their talents ahead of various international competitions like Olympics Games scheduled for next year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Kilimanjaro Premium Lager’s sponsors include Tigo 21-kilometre, Grand Malt 5-kilometre fun run. Others include, CMC Automobiles, FNB, Kibo Palace, Kilimanjaro Water, Rwandair, KK Security and TPC Limited.

She says that her firm would like to see marathon runners and fans travel to Moshi without going into their pocket for fuel and other needs.

“Those travelling to Moshi for the Kilimanjaro Marathon 2016 will also have the chance to redeem their points and might end up fuelling without spending any cash,” she says.

She said as a way of inspiring those wishing to travel to Moshi in February for the marathon and also ushering in the festive season, they will offer loyal customers another reason to celebrate as a way to commemorate the first launch anniversary of the Gapco Safari Loyalty card programme,” she says.

Coined as the Fuel-Swipe-Win campaign, the scheme offers 4000 litres of free petrol or diesel to 100 lucky card members over a period of four weeks.

She says that 25 lucky Safari card holders will be rewarded 40 litres of free fuel through a weekly draw for them to drive to Moshi for the race and New Year festivities.

Last year’s Kilimanjaro Marathon saw Tanzanian Fabiola William and Ismail Juma putting up a strong-willed performance to win the women’s full marathon and men’s half marathon respectively, at Moshi University of Cooperative and Business Studies (MUCoBS) ground.

William, a woman police residing in Singida, clocked 2:49:51 to win the women’s full marathon and bring to an end Kenya’s dominance in the event, while Juma raced in 1:03:05 to win the men’s 21km race, which saw local runners record a clean sweep of medals.

There was a clean sweep of medals for Tanzanian athletes in the men’s half marathon after Juma, Emmanuel Giniki (1:03:15) and Theoful Joseph (1:03:15) won the top three positions. Kenyan athletes, however, continued to claim dominance in the annual race after winning all top ten positions in the men’s full marathon as well as claiming nine position in the women’s top ten.

In the men’s full marathon, David Ruto defended his title after clocking 2:15:50, beating other nine fellow Kenyans.

Bernard Kimayo came in second place in 2:15:52, while the third place went to Alex Bartilo who clocked 02:16:00.

There were also several winners in the Gapco’s 10-kilometre race as top ten placed winners won wheelchairs while those who took part in the 5-kilometre Fun-Race earned several token prizes. Winners of the full marathon in both categories took home Sh4 million.