FOR an international-ranked event, the just-concluded Kampala MTN Marathon was lacking in several aspects. As someone put it, there was little to show that this was the sixth edition of the annual competition.
You could sense trouble days before flag-off. It all started with wrong entries. Competitors who had registered for say the 21km event suddenly found themselves in the 10kms. Organisers said a correction was not possible because competition lists were compiled “very far away” in South Africa.
Much as this answer reduced complaints, it also made the leading communications company appear behind the pace in this era where even a call to the moon takes seconds.
In the race proper, it was absolute chaos. Locating the starting point was the first puzzle. Then there was no proper starting procedure. There also seemed to be no demarcation between elite athletes and those on a fun run.
Victims included Uganda’s top distance runner Alex Malinga, who despite being at Kololo in time, only realised that the 21km race was being flagged-off when he was 200m from the starting point.
Matters were not helped by a Master of Ceremony who, for instance, announced the start of the 21km race when it had already been flagged-off.
Guides who were supposed to continually direct runners instead seemed overwhelmed by their walkie talkies.
Close flag-offs of the race ended in a finish line mess especially for elite 21km runners. They had to jostle for space with tail-enders in the shorter race. No wonder the arrival of the leaders of the second race almost went unnoticed.
A lot also has to be done on road safety. In some sections I saw boda-bodas almost ramming into runners.
Instead of ensuring that runners got a proper warm-down and rest after the strength sapping races, competitors were instead subjected to a humiliating scramble for MTN water bottles.
It was survival for the fittest as people struggled for the bottles hurled at them from a pick-up.
Organisers have an entire year to style up or else the better organised Source of the Nile marathon could soon be a better option.
