Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s top long distance runner, Gabriel Geay, is leaving the country today for the United States ahead of this year’s Boston Marathon scheduled to take place on April 15.
Geay will board a KLM flight ahead of the prestigious event that will also feature other world class runners.
He said his target is to do more than what he did during last year’s event in which he finished second to win a silver medal while Kenya’s Evans Chebet was awarded gold.
“I expect to face a strong opposition from top runners in the world including Chebet, who will be seeking to defend his title and last year’s Valencia marathon winner Ethiopian runner Sisay Lemma,” said Geay. He said Lemma, who clocked 2:01:48 in the Valencia marathon, was ahead of him before he (Geay) finished fifth after clocking 2:04:33.
“I have trained intensively ahead of the event and my prime target is to win top positions. I am not worried about the profiles of other runners in the event,” he said.
The race has been scheduled to start from Eastern Massachusetts to Boston, where the winner will take home $150,000 (Sh 390m) while the runner-up will be awarded $75,000 (Sh194m) and the third placed will receive $40,000 (sh104m).
The Boston Marathon is an annual race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, the United States.
It is traditionally held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics.
The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world’s best-known road racing events.
It is one of six World Marathon Majors. Its course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Copley Square in Boston.
The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A. has been organising this event annually since 1897, including a “virtual alternative” after the 2020 road race was cancelled due to the Covid -19 pandemic.
The race has been managed by DMSE Sports since 1988. Amateur and professional runners from all over the world compete in the Boston Marathon each year, braving the hilly Massachusetts terrain.