Race towards 2026 Eldoret City Marathon begins

Viola Chimweno during the Eldoret City Marathon on April 27, 2025. [File, Standard]

A roadmap to the 2026 Eldoret City Marathon has been drawn as the City of Champions gets set for what is expected to be another thrilling contest in April.

The seventh edition is tipped to be bigger, with the 10km fun race expected to pull huge numbers to Eldoret for the April 26 race.

Last month, Uasin Gishu County returned as the title sponsor while Standard Group PLC came back as the media partners.

This year, the race is once again coinciding with the 2026 London Marathon and fans are set to immediately follow the World Marathon Major live at entertainment joints soon after the last participant of the Eldoret City Marathon crosses the finish line near Zion Mall.

It was also run the same day as London Marathon in 2024 and last year.

Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii is set to launch the race’s Climate Action initiative tomorrow with a tree planting exercise at the Eldoret Hill School as the roadmap to the April 26 begins.

Race organisers are also mulling a One Mile road race to give middle distance athletes an opportunity to take part in the April event.

If ratified, hundreds of the country’s track athletes, who have been following the marathon on the sidelines since the inaugural edition in 2018, could eye honours in the Eldoret City Marathon’s exciting addition.

Observers say it will be the first Mile in a Kenyan extravaganza.

“The 42km course, which passes through nearly all suburbs in Eldoret, will not change this year because it is a certified route. This year, we have the elite 42km race, the 10km fun run and we have plans of possibly introducing One Mile because we have gotten requests from our track athletes,” Eldoret City Marathon race director Moses Tanui said.

Tanui, a two-time Boston Marathon champion and Local Organising Committee chairman Andrew Chelogoi assured athletics enthusiasts and sponsors that the event will continue maintaining its status as one of the best marathons in Africa.

Uasin Gishu Sports Chief Officer Victorine Kapkiai maintained that the county government had set aside the event’s Sh15 million prize purse and expressed confidence that athletes from the Mecca of distance running – The City of Champions, Elgeyo Marakwet (the Home of Champions) and Nandi (the Source of Champions) and beyond will eye the rich rewards.

By last Friday, at least 200 athletes from Kenya and other East African nations as well as counterparts from Europe had registered, with a historic rise in the number of elites expected ahead of April.