Norman Katende
25 November 2008
Kampala — Participants in the 10km race will be disappointed to find they ran only 9.2km
RUNNERS skipped a section of the MTN Marathon's 10km route on Sunday, leading to elite runners registering very fast times, officials admitted yesterday.
Race organisers and the Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) officials conceded yesterday that the lead car that guided the 10km front runners missed 800m of the route.
The runners did not go through the Kafu-Kyadondo Road, Nakasero Hill Road and Lourdel road section because the lead car instead branched off at Nakasero, according to Ronald Kasirye, who measured the route with UAF official Faustin Kiwa on Friday night.
The 10km race is the most popular with the majority of competitors registered from several Kampala corporate companies.
Moses Kipsiro clocked 26 minutes and 14 seconds to win the race in a time that would have bettered Haile Gebreselassie's 2002 road race world record of 27:02.
Uganda athletics federation secretary Beatrice Ayikoru said the lapse was a result of a last minute change to the route.
"It all happened so fast. The change was in the interest of the runners and the traffic flow. It has given us a great lesson for future races," Ayikoru said.
Ayikoru said the error was only in the 10km route that was changed. She said the route measurer concentrated on the accuracy of the marathon and half-marathon, that are the key events in the MTN Kampala marathon.
The marathon and half-marathon routes had been verified before, and were exact, Ayikoru said.
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