Special Correspondent, in Addis Ababa
The Great Ethiopian Run, whose 24th edition will be run on the streets of Addis Ababa today, seems to have ticked all the right boxes on its sprint towards global dominance.
Also, by breaking the ice in inviting Kenya’s freshly-minted women’s world marathon record holder Ruth Chepng’etich as chief guest for this year’s edition, the Addis race organisers have given the annual ritual a sweet diplomatic twist that also goes to calm the fierce, decades-old Kenya vs Ethiopia athletics rivalry.
Chepng’etich -- who improved on Ethiopian Tigst Assefa’s world mark (two hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds set in Berlin last year) by winning last month’s Chicago Marathon in an amazing 2:09:56 -- spent some time on Friday visiting the modern headquarters of the century-old Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, hosted by the corporation’s Chief Executive Officer Getnet Tadesse and head of public relations Abayneh Zewdu Shay, and accompanied by two-time Boston Marathon champion Moses Tanui and Uasin Gishu County Sports and ICT Executive Lucy Njoroge.
And yesterday, after an early morning training session on the famous hills of Entoto, some 3,000 metres above sea level on the hills of Addis, Chepng’etich witnessed the children’s race that comes as a curtain-raiser to the main Great Ethiopian Run.
Founded by distance running legend Haile Gebrselassie in 2001, the Sofi Malt-sponsored 10-kilometre Great Ethiopian Run will tomorrow celebrate the registration of 50,000 runners – almost double the entry of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon and Nairobi City Marathon races - placing it firmly on the path to becoming the world’s biggest 10km road race.
Currently, USA’s Peachtree Road Race, run on the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s biggest annually-run 10km road race in numbers with over 70,000 runners competing annually for the 60,000 available slots.
Great Ethiopian Run General Manager Dagmawit Amare has broken the glass ceiling, becoming the first woman to head the Addis race’s management, having taken over from fellow Ethiopian Ermias Ayele who was at the helm for about two decades, retiring a couple of years back.
In 2013, the Great Ethiopian Run was awarded the “AIMS Social Award” by the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) for “working towards fulfilling the eight United Nations Millenium Development Goals which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, combating disease, decreasing child mortality, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and ensuring environmental stability.”
What makes the Great Ethiopian Run a unique race? “Probably the number of elite athletes -- 310 men and 190 women this year -- the festival atmosphere with 10 live bands, three shower stations, the dancing, the singing…”, Dagmawit, or “Dagi” as she is popularly referred to here, explained to Nation Sport yesterday.
“Then a race in a capital city at high altitude, at 2,400 metres (the fourth highest in the world), the presence of Haile and many of Ethiopia’s great champions… This is also a platform for emerging young athletes.”
And what have been the organisers’ biggest challenges?: “Trying to build understanding about staging such an event among stakeholders, inflation (balancing cost vs registration fees), lack of race equipment, race materials and lack of understanding in sponsoring mass running events have been some of the main challenges but we are slowly overcoming these,” Dagmawit observes.
Besides being a competition, the Great Ethiopian Run has now become very much a way of life, attracting the diplomatic community and scores of foreign elite, recreational and fund-raising runners with 20 different nationalities represented at this weekend’s 24th edition.
“The race is becoming like a national holiday and our management company is growing in structure and enjoys a passionate, professional organising team.
“Seeing our work is a statement about Ethiopia as the event grows in quality, content, number of participants and impact.
But despite the great strides that the Great Ethiopian Run has made, “Dagi” is cautiously optimistic about the race’s ambition of being the biggest 10km road race on earth.
“We have reached the 50,000 runners’ mark this year, and that makes us one of the biggest 10km races in the world, and so it is possible, but it will take a few more years,” she notes.
Ethiopia’s State Minister for Tourism, Selamawit Kassa sees huge potential in the race bringing in the numbers.
“The Great Ethiopian Run has immense potential in boosting out ‘stopover tourism’… it is an excellent opportunity for our country,” Selamawit said yesterday, remarks supported by race founder Gebrselassie who also stressed the importance of the Kenya vs Ethiopia athletics rivalry.
Together with the Great Ethiopian Run, the tourism ministry recently unveiled the “Discover Ethiopia Classics” a four-race series in four regional cities of the country in Bekoji, Arba Minch, Jimma and Hawassa that include hikes, training runs in coffee farms, food tasting and visits to touristic sites.
“Kenyan athletics would not be great without Ethiopia. Equally, Ethiopian athletics would not be great without Kenya. The partnership between Ethiopia and Kenya will help our race grow,” Gebrselassie, who celebrated 28 world records in distance running, besides multiple World and Olympic titles, said yesterday.
According to the organisers, today’s race will again use a wave start for the 50,000 runners, with the elite races starting just five minutes before the first wave of the masses.
One famous name among the masses will be Eamonn Coghlan, running as an ambassador for Goal, one of several development agencies who have international representation in the race.
This year’s race medals have a special design marking the 50th anniversary of the discovery in Ethiopia of Lucy, believed to be one of the oldest humanoids from about four million years ago.
With the race’s silver jubilee coming up next year, the Great Ethiopian Run is firmly on the road to becoming the world’s biggest annually-run 10km road race.
Registration for next year’s 25th anniversary Great Ethiopian Run starts tomorrow, just hours after the conclusion of today’s race with the first 5,000 runners to register getting free entry.
Race partners Ethiopian Airlines are also offering a 20 per cent discount on tickets to Addis for next year’s edition.
