The Ngorongoro Marathon which incurred plenty of problems and controversies in 2023 will it be able to stand be counted among the athletics events of 2024?
Ngorongoro Race an annual event took place on December 30, 2023 after being rescheduled almost five times in a single year.
It is still not known if participants, especially winners, managed to get their prizes in January 2024 as promised.
Organized by Meta Sports Promotions, the Ngorongoro Race was initially set for November 26, 2023, but later on the sporting event was pushed forward to December 10.
Now the Marathon which was later rescheduled to December 30, just two days before the world ushered into the New Year 2024 did take place but lacked the usual fanfare.
Meta Petro Bare is the organizer of the race and he says they decided to postpone the athletics event due to the natural calamity which occurred in Hanang District on December 3, 2023.
There have also been a few changes; for this year, the Ngorongoro Race, which is organized by the Meta Sports Promotions has taken aboard a new partner, the SOS Children Villages.
As usual, the Ngorongoro Race will be staged in Karatu District, with the marathon being flagged off from the Loduare Gate Station, which is the main entrance to both the Ngorongoro Conservation and Serengeti National Park from Arusha.
The Ngorongoro Race which used to be held in April, shifted dates to August and later September, then again November and now the Marathon is coming up in the final days of December.
The event features the main half-marathon 21 kilometres, as well as the 10 kilometres and 5 kilometres’ categories.
They ran from Ngorongoro Gate to the Rhotia Hill hamlet before turning back and finishing the race at the Mazingira Bora grounds in Karatu Township.
Previously, the Ngorongoro Race carried other missions such as fighting against wildlife poaching and illegal harvesting of natural resources.
Race coordinator Emmanuel Sanga, from SOS previously said they were expecting more than 2000 runners to participate in the Ngorongoro Race 2023 but those turned out for the actual event were just a handful.
Noah Joram Mwakyalabwe is the Program Manager for the SOS Children Village explains that the organization has decided to partner up with Meta Sports for the event because they also have a project in Karatu.
“We are working to raise funds for outreach missions that are targeting to rescue children who live under difficult and dangerous environments as well as homeless youth,” said Joram.
The 2023 race targeted to raise more than 160 million/- to support such programs.
SOS Villages, which entered into Tanzania over 30 years ago, run humanitarian projects in Arusha, Mwanza, Iringa and Dar-es-salaam as well as Zanzibar and Pemba in the Isles.
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