The Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon has been postponed and will not be held this year due to the ongoing situation occasioned by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon scheduled to take place on October 25th 2020 and now will not take place.
Announcing the decision, Chairman of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon Local Organising Committee, Peter Gitau said the uncertainty presented by COVID-19 and the containment measures required created a set of unprecedented challenges.
“Our consultations with Athletics Kenya and the Ministry of Sports clearly indicated that we would not be able to plan for a physical event with any certainty. We then considered a virtual marathon event and consulted other stakeholders, amongst them, running clubs, coaches and past corporate running teams. After benchmarking with local and international virtual races our conclusion was that this format promoted improved safety but for it to be successful it still required the majority of participants to leave their homes in order to cover the race distances; a move that could compromiseCOVID-19 preventive measure protocols. We have therefore made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 edition of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon. This was not an easy decision to make. We 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.”
Last year, the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon attracted over 17,000 participants and raised over Ksh. 30 million towards the community investment programme, FutureMakers. The programme provides youth in need with education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. In 2019, these fund raising efforts supported over 4,400 girls with life skills and economic opportunity training and the Bank also invested Ksh. 15 million to support women-led start-ups. Additionally, more than 650 youth and SMEs received financial literacy training.
This year the company has gone ahead with various projects supporting the youth. They are providing more than 3,500 girls and young women with education and empowerment opportunities. They have also invested Ksh. 15 million to training and grow SME women-led businesses, and will train and support over 3,700 young men and women with employment skills, including ably different youth with visual impairments, among others. The company has donated over Ksh. 120 million to support vulnerable children, as well as provision of primary and secondary health care for COVID-19 emergency response.