Wanjiru ready for battle of London

By Ben Ahenda and AGENCIES

Beijing marathon gold medallist, Samuel Wanjiru, has thrown down the gauntlet to defending London Marathon champion Martin Lel and Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie.

Wanjiru left yesterday for Sunday’s London showdown with an attempt to upstage the runner who beat him to victory last year as well as the Ethiopian world marathon record holder.

After finishing second last year returning 2: 05:24 against Lel who clocked 2:05:15, Wanjiru said he was ready to do battle in the 42Km race and hopefully post a good time.

"My biggest challenge for now is to win the title in a good time record. I’ll face off with the defending champion, Lel and Gebreselassie. Let the best runner win," declared Wanjiru.

Surplus made

The marathon runner has been training in Nyahururu and Ngong.

Elsewhere, the London Marathon Charitable Trust has awarded nearly £5m (Sh578.1m) to boost sport and recreation facilities in the capital using funds allocated from the surplus made by the London Marathon Limited in 2008.

The Trust allocated more than £4.7m (Sh543.32m) to develop sports facilities in London, its largest annual awards total since it was founded in 1981.

The awards included total grants of nearly £2.25m (Sh259.1m) to 54 projects in 25 London Boroughs and in Liverpool ranging in value from £3,000 (Sh348,480) to £150,000 (Sh17.424m).

The record awards made as a result of the 2008 London Marathon brings the total of grants made by the Trust since it was founded in 1981 to £30,881,659 (Sh3.569b).

John Disley, co-founder of the London Marathon and chairman of the London Marathon Charitable Trust, said:

"The Marathon was given a duty by its founders to help provide sports facilities for the people of London and the number and size of grants we’ve made this year show that the objective of improving opportunities for Londoners to participate in sport and recreation remains a high priority."

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