Great Ethiopian Run to take place in Addis Ababa on Sunday
The 17th edition of the Great Ethiopian Run will take place in Addis Ababa on Sunday November 26, 2017. Thousands are expected to be part in the largest road race in Africa.
Two weeks ago, organizers announced that the cash prizes for the men’s and women’s winner of the elite athletes’ race has been doubled to 100,000 for this year’s races. In total the elite athlete prize purse will be around half a million birr.
According to the organizers, the increase in prize money is in line with one of the objectives of the Great Ethiopian Run 10km to create a platform for new athletes to emerge and have opportunity to compete on the international stage.
In addition to the 500 elite athletes, 400 foreign athletes and over 44,000 participants expected to take part in the race.
“We have come a long way in 16 years, and giving better rewards to the athletes has always figured highly in our plans,” Ermias Ayele, general manager of Great Ethiopian Run, said.
When the competition envisioned by long distance legend Haile Gebreselassie, Peter Middlebrook and Abi Masefield in late October 2000, the winner was prized only 10,000 birr.
“We started with winners’ prizes at 10,000. This year the winners will receive ten times that number,” he said.
Another new addition to this year’s race is the use of race numbers for all participants, a move designed to address the problem of fake t-shirt duplication. All participants are expected to wear their race number on the front of their t-shirt to show that they have officially entered the race.
Read more at: The Reporter
