Norman Katende
7 October 2008
Kampala — PARTICIPANTS in the MTN Kampala International marathon due November 23 will be treated to a more high-tech marathon with the coming on board of the Makerere University Faculty of computing and Information technology.
Registration for the marathon started Saturday at various stations that included all MTN service centres, MTN Towers and the local athletics federation offices at Metropole House on Entebbe Road.
A presentation headed by the corporate affairs head at east Africa's oldest university's computing faculty, Michael Niyitegeka, at Sheraton Kampala Hotel, Friday morning revealed that the runners will for the first time get their results on their mobile phones just after finishing the race.
"It's one of the new technological innovations we are going to use in this year's marathon. We are also looking at getting the results via e-mail after a day and having soft copies of the runners' certificates on line which can be printed from one's office," said MTN's Aggrey Kagonyera after the 15-minute presentation.
Niyitegeka's group has developed a programme which will use computer chips to identify the position of the runners until they cross the finish line with the results transmitted to the mobile phone.
"This will be done with our media partners sms-media and true African," explained Kagonyera.
There is also an online registration as well as a way of easing the process.
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