The 2020 Standard Chartered Marathon slated for October 25 has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking during a virtual meeting, Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon Local Organising Committee, chairman Peter Gitau, said the uncertainty presented by Covid-19 and the containment measures required, create a set of unprecedented challenges.
"We were not able to plan for a physical event with any certainty.
"We then considered a virtual marathon event and consulted widely but after benchmarking with local and international virtual races, it was still not working.
"Our conclusion was that while the format promoted improved safety, the majority of participants were still required to leave their homes in order to cover the race distances and for it to be successful.
"The move could, therefore compromise Covid-19 preventive measure protocols,” said Gitau.
Gitau added: "We have therefore made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 edition of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon.”
He said the decision was not easy to make considering that they have held the marathon annually for 17 years and 2020 was to be no different.
"However, the depth and scale of Covid- 19 is unprecedented and remains hard to predict,” he noted.
Last year, the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon attracted over 17,000 participants and raised over Sh30 million towards the community investment programme —FutureMakers which provides youth in need of education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.
In 2019, the fund-raising efforts supported over 4,400 girls with life skills and economic opportunity training .
The bank also invested Sh15 million in support of women-led start-ups. Besides, more than 650 youth and SMEs received financial literacy training. Gitau was optimistic that the event will be held next year.
The Ministry of Sport last week issued guidelines on resumption of sports after a five month hiatus. Some of the non-contact sports set for reopening are athletics, volleyball, cricket, bowling, weightlifting, cycling, table tennis, lawn tennis, shooting and golf.
However, some of the sports that have been categorised as high risk contact sport and set to take long before resumption besides closed swimming activities are boxing, judo, karate, wrestling, rugby and taekwondo.
