Adidas crave for Malinga

Aug 24, 2005

ALEX Malinga is moving towards lucrative sponsorship in his marathon events with international kit manufacturing company Adidas offering to take him on.

By Norman Katende

ALEX Malinga is moving towards lucrative sponsorship in his marathon events with international kit manufacturing company Adidas offering to take him on.

This comes in the wake of his sixth place finish in the World Athletics Championships final in Helsinki, and clocking a new national record of 2 hours 12 minutes and 12 seconds.

His Ugandan manager, Flavio Pasqualato, said talks were already underway between Adidas and Gianni Demadonna (Malinga’s Europe-based manager).

“They have contacted him through Demadonna. There are still a number of things to be completed.

If the deal is finalised, then he will have better training in some of the Adidas camps and also be able to get invitations to some of the leading marathons,” said Pasqualato.

Meanwhile, Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) has been left with the single task of picking the best marathoners to represent the country in the Great Race on Earth Marathon. This follows a promise by the organisers to meet all the travel and accommodation costs for all the participants.

The marathon, launched in Helsinki, will have teams producing participants for the legs in Nairobi (Oct 23), Singapore (Dec 4), Mumbai (Jan 15, 2006) and Hong Kong (Feb 12, 2006).

“If you enter a full team, then we will cater for the air tickets and accommodation for the participants,” said Oliver Troupe of Prism, the media company for the sponsors.

There are prizes amounting to $1.125m (sh2.025bn) and a bonus of $0.175m.

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