Haile Gebrselassie to lead 40,000 participants at Great Ethiopian Run
The race will mark an end to Haile’s illustrious career
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia –Haile Gebrselassie will lead 40,000 participants at his last local race at the 15th edition of the Great Ethiopian Run taking place on Sunday 22 November 2015.
Haile did his last international race in UK at the Great Manchester Run which is organized by the Great Run Company which is also a title sponsor of the 2015 Great Ethiopian Run.
“It will be an honor for me to close my athletics career at local event and doing the Great Ethiopian Run alongside 40,000 others will make sense in many ways,” Haile said.
Haile has won the inaugural race in 2001 and has been supporting the event to get it where it is today.
Registration for the 2015 Great Ethiopian Run opens on 29th June 2015. Individual participants can register at selected 10 Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) branches. To encourage individual participants to register early Great Ethiopian Run has arranged 1,000 training t-shirts. Participants registering through their organization can register at Great Ethiopian Run office only by providing a letter from their organization.
Registration fee is 150 birr including VAT and price revision is made due to the inflation in the past few years which has increased the overall expense, according to a press statement GER released.
“CBE, which is the presenting sponsor of the event, is partnering with Great Ethiopian Run to encourage fun runners to take exercise seriously, build the country’s image internationally and as corporate social responsibility,” the press release said.
UN Ethiopia is working on the fundraising aspect of the event and last year alone has raised a total of 1.3 million birr for different charities. UN Ethiopia is using the momentum created during the annual Great Ethiopian Run to promote important social messages. The official airline, Ethiopian Airlines, is giving 10 percent discount for all international participants coming out in November to take part in the event.
Online registration for international participants has opened in January this year and a total of over 200 participants have already registered to take part on the event.
Participants will collect their race packs at the sport expo which will be organized in the four days leading up to the 2015 Great Ethiopian Run at the Ethiopian Youth Sport Academy.
Source: The Reporter
