Since our first race in 2001 the event has enjoyed the support of many world-famous athletes and well-known names from international athletics. Hicham El Guerrouj, Morocco's double Olympic champion, Carolina Kluft, Sweden's reigning Olympic heptathlon champion, 2000 Olympic 5,000m silver medallist Sonia O'Sullivan from Ireland and Kenya's Paul Tergat have all been guests at the race. IAAF President Lamine Diack and New York Marathon Race Director are also in our number of VIP guests.

Other VIP guests have also included Daniel Komen, Eliud Kipchoge, Catherine Ndereba and Martin Keino from Kenya, David Moorcroft, Rosa Mota, German Silva, Ingrid Kristiansen and Gabriella Szabo.

More news on elite athlete participation continues below...

Elite Athletes

Every year the race welcomes participation from some of Kenya's top international athletes. In 2006 Lineth Chepkurui was the runner-up in the women's elite race while in 2005 Nathan Naibei finished 2nd in the men's elite race.

Previous race winners include some of Ethiopia’s all-time greats such as Haile Gebrselassie and Berhane Adere (race winners in 2001) and Tirunesh Dibaba and Sileshi Sihin (race winners in 2003). Kenenisa Bekele has twice participated in the race (2001 & 2002) finishing 3rd on both occasions.