The Safaricom Gusii Golden Series 10km races kick off on Friday at Gusii stadium with the Kisii Super Tarrific Road Race. Athletics Kenya’s Nyanza South chairman, Peter Angwenyi, said all the preparations for the annual event were complete and that the athletes will use the same route as that used in last year’s competition.

Speaking in Kisii, Angwenyi said: “The stage is set and already we have a big number of runners - including elite stars - who have confirmed their participation in the race.” He said runners Nyamira, Kericho, Kisii, Gucha, Bureti, Eldoret and Iten have already started registering for the race which will also count towards a Sh50,000 jackpot for any athlete in the men’s and women’s categories who wins all three races in the series or who performs most consistently in the triangular series.

First of three races

“The race will start at Gusii Stadium through the town’s streets and end at the stadium,” he said.  The race is the first in the three competitions competition sponsored by mobile phone service provider Safaricom and organised by the Kebirigo Athletics Club.

Winners will take home prizes ranging cash awards to livestock and farm produce with the men’s and women’s overall winners in Kisii earning Sh15,000 and a bull each.  The prizes run up to a 10th place finish. Safaricom’s chief executive, Michael Joseph, recently unveiled a Sh2 million sponsorship for the Safaricom Gusii Golden Series. The second race in the series will be the Ogembo Saasa 10km on September 14 with the main competition, the Safaricom Kebirigo 10km race, pencilled for October 5.