Mpumalanga Marathon won’t pay Samuel Kalalei and Shelmith Muriuki

“Welcome to the Mpumalanga Marathon Foundation! We organise the annual Mpumalanga Marathon to raise funds for struggling athletes globally, really? Infact the race objective should read, “Welcome to the Mpumalanga Marathon Foundation! We organise the annual Mpumalanga Marathon to raise funds ‘to kill the’ struggling athletes globally. This is what these race organisers deserve to be called!

Kenya’s Samuel Kalalei and Shelmith Muriuki spend over $1448 (Kshs 187,154) on a return flight according to details from CheapOair and another $ 320 on accommodation if they spend the four nights at Hazyview Sun, which results to a colossal total of $ 1768 (kshs 228,514) that the two elite athletes spend while in South Africa to participate in a killing career race called Mpumalanga Marathon. The above figures exclude lunch and dinner.

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The two Kenyans might not receive their hard earned money that they got rewarded after taking part in the inaugural Mpumalanga Marathon on September 16, 2024 due to sponsors pulling out without releasing the huge prize purse of  R1 million (Kshs 7,026,234) to the men’s and women’s podium finishers.

Immediately the race was announced, eyebrows were raised, when the race organisers announced a record prize purse and lacking the much needed hype in the build-up to the event, which ended up attracting over 400 runners.

The Men’s race was won by Jobo Khatoane from South Africa in 2:10.45 and followed in second by his compatriot Lucky Mohale in 2:18.04 with Kalalei sealing the podium in 2:20.53.

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The women’s race was more dramatic as the winner Tadu Nare who had dropped from running Sydney Marathon which had a guaranteed $40,000 (Kshs 5,170,000) as appearance fee as hoped for a better return in Mpumalanga without having to produce the fast time as she would have been expected in Australia.

Nare took the top honors in a time of 2:37.20 and was followed in second place by Muriuki in 2:44.47 with South Africa’s Malineo Mahloko finishing in third place in 2:50.09.

According to the local media stations, it’s reported that sponsors pulled out after event organisers failed to register the race as a non-profit organisation with South African Revenue Service (SARS).