Nairobi — Athletics Kenya (AK) will deploy more than 130 technical officials to oversee this year's Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon scheduled to run on Sunday in Kenya's capital city.
AK Nairobi branch boss Barnabas Korir said the event organizers are paying extra attention to the technical aspects of the city road race as they bid to have it promoted to the league of the world's elite marathons.
The Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon will start at the Railway Club with more than 20, 000 elite and fun runners expected to take part.
And in line with the international safety provisions, the Nairobi Traffic department on Wednesday released an elaborate road closure diversions schedule that will see traffic to and out of the city diverted to alternative roads between 4am and 2pm.
The affected roads include sections of Mombasa road, Uhuru Highway, Upper Hill and Forest road while within the CBD, Kenyatta Avenue, Muindi Mbingu and sections of Haile Selasie and University Way will also be closed.
"We do not expect a major disruption in the flow of traffic. We have carefully organized traffic diversions to ensure that Nairobi county residents have alternative routes to critical locations in the city including hospitals, churches and airports," Deputy Traffic Commandant, Nairobi County, Geoffrey Njogu, announced.
The event organizers have declared a few changes to the route for the six race categories largely due to relocation of the start and finish points which have been moved to Uhuru Park.
Speaking during a press briefing, Peter Gitau, the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee expressed optimism that the goal of raising Ksh60 million this year for the Seeing is Believing initiative will be attained.
"This year, we have noticed heightened interest from the elite and fun runners. So far, we have registered close to 18,000 participants and we are optimistic of reaching our target. We have a good mix of elite and budding athletes plus an unprecedented entry of past winners all eyeing the Kes 8million prize purse," Gitau said.
Registration is still open at www.nairobimarathon.com. All proceeds from registration will be channeled to the Seeing is Believing initiative, the Bank's flagship CSR program that focuses on addressing avoidable blindness among children below 15 years.
