10th March, 2009
Olympic Gold Medalist Samuel Wanjiru will appear at the 2009 Salzburg AMREF International Marathon in May 2009 to help raise funds for health and water projects in Kenya’s Kajiado District. Wanjiru will run as a celebrity guest at the marathon, to be held on April 29, alongside fellow star athlete and AMREF ambassador Catherine Ndereba.
Besides the Olympic gold, which he won at the Beijing Games in 2008, Wanjiru has a bagful of honours to his name, including winning the Rotterdam Half Marathon in 2005, the Ras All Khaimah Half Marathon in the UAE (2007), the Fortis City-Pier City Half Marathon in Holland (2007) and the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan (2007). He was named ‘Most Promising Kenyan Sportsman of the Year’ in 2005 and ‘Kenyan Sportsman of the Year in 2008.
“I like helping people who are in need and that is why I joined AMREF as they reach out to help others,” says Wanjiru. “I’m happy to be part of the AMREF team because I believe that this is a noble way of sharing my achievements with the community that has nurtured me.”
The AMREF Marathon has been held in Salzburg, the hometown of legendary musician Mozart, since 2004. This will be the sixth race in the series, which was awarded the IAAF label by the International Association of Athletics Federation in 2008. Last year’s men’s marathon event was won by John Kirwa, while Sabine Hofer of Austria won the women’s race.
