"APA-Nairobi (Kenya) The world’s leading marathon relay series, The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE), will kick off on Sunday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi with more than 25 countries from across the world participating, organizers told APA on Saturday. The gruelling running challenge, now entering its fifth series, is sponsored by Standard Chartered and has one of the richest prize funds in world athletics of US$ 1 million (70 million shillings).
“Seeing is Believing” is a partnership between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). It has raised US$ 17 million (119 million shillings) to date and aims to raise a further US$ 20 million (140 million shillings) by 2014.
Four sight impaired Paralympians will be joining their respective countries teams. "Paralympic gold medallist Henry Wanyoike of Kenya won 2 golds in Athens 5 and 10,000 meters.
Photo:Xinhua > Qi Shun of China won the Men's Marathon T12 with a time of 2:30:32 and set a new world record during the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing on September 17. 2008.
Yuichi Takahashi, 43 of Japan. won gold in the men's T11 division marathon, also running in the series is Brazilian Paralympics star Alex Mendonca. The series started yesterday in Nairobi, then Singapore on December 7th, followed by Mumbai (Bombay) on January 18th, 2009 and the finish in Hong Kong on February 8th.