NAIROBI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Kenya’s former 10,000m and world marathon record holder Paul Tergat will race against career track pacesetter on Aug. 11 during the Plascon Color 5km charity run in Nairobi.
Tergat, who broke the 10,000m and world marathon records in August 1997 and September 2003 respectively, will compete against Martin Keino who is a former professional athlete and pacesetter in track events.
Tergat, who also competed in the 5,000m event and is five-time world cross-country champion, retired from competitive athletics and is now the President of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK),
"I have never competed against the athletics legend; however, the event will afford me an opportunity to face Tergat for the first time. I beseech current and elite runners to join us," Keino appealed on Saturday.
Martin, who son to one legendary runner, Kipchoge Keino, won the 1994 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) cross-country championship title and 5,000m accolades in 1995 during his time as a student at the University of Arizona in the United States.
Felix Mwaura, the director of the charity event, said they are targeting 5,000 participants for the race whose top five winners will be offered the opportunity to select a project of their choice in informal settlements where they will have 20 roofs of their choice buildings given a fresh shade by the paint makers.
“We want to use sports to raise funds to initiate projects that will cater for the needy in society and to enable bright students from poor backgrounds to access education,” Mwaura said.
The event will have five stations where the participants will be doused from head to toe with colored powder of different shades and the winner will be determined by the intensity of the color on their body.
