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Ethiopia’s Great Run to feature famous athletes

Source: PANA

About 33,000 people, 200 of them from overseas, have registered to take part in Ethiopia’s Great Run, scheduled for Sunday, event organizers disclosed told PANA here Friday.

World famous athletes, including British’s Paula Radcliffe, are already in Addis Ababa for the event (the ninth edition), tagged Africa’s biggest road race.

“Paula Radcliffe this morning arrived in Addis Ababa as a guest of the Ethiopian Airlines 2009 Great Ethiopian Run,” read a press release issued by the organizers Friday.

Ethiopian Airlines has taken over the title sponsorship status of the annual road race from the Japanese car manufacturer, Toyota, which had been the major sponsor of the event which started in 2000.

Toyota is now the second most important sponsor of the event, initiated and still managed by Ethiopia’s legendary long-distance athlete, Haile Gebresilassie.

The 33,000 participants registered for the 10-kilometre race include a record number of 200 foreigners with majority of them coming from London, Dublin, Leipzig, Sweden and Norway, according to the organizers.

Organizers said they had raised 515,000 Ethiopian Birr (over US$ 41,000) from the sale of race T-shirts and sponsorship, surpassing the target over US$ 40,000 set at the start of the campaign, entitled “I’m running for a child”.

“The money will be given to two organizations in Diredawa and near Adama, nearly 400 kms and 100 kms respectively east of Addis, which are working with children affected by HIV,” the press statement indicated.

Alongside Radcliffe, Ethiopian double Olympic gold medallist Haile and Derartu Tullu will start the race with Kuma Demeksa, mayor of Addis Ababa.

In addition to being transmitted live on Ethiopia’s only television channel, ETV, the event enjoys coverage by a range of international TV networks, including BBC, CNN, Eurosport, Supersport and ESPN.