Athletics
Big pay day beckons for Wanjiru
Sammy Wanjiru wins the London Marathon in April. Apart from a possible cash prize of Sh32 million for him to win at Chicago Marathon on Sunday, the Olympic champion is also assured of Sh38 million for winning the World Marathon Majors title. Photo/FILE
In Summary
- Olympic and London champ could win a possible Sh32m in Chicago race
Samuel Wanjiru will become the richest paid athlete this year if he wins the Chicago marathon.
Organisers splashed out an estimated Sh19 million ($250,000) in appearance fee (same usually paid out to 100m world record holder Usain Bolt) to lure Wanjiru to Chicago and the Olympic champion will get another Sh7.5 million ($100,000) prize money should he win the race plus an additional Sh5.6 million ($75,000) if he wins in a new course record.
Wanjiru has asked for the first half pace to be around one hour, one minute and 50 seconds, but the key to successful pacemaking, said his manager Gabriela Rosa, was to “hold him down” to keep Wanjiru from surging or having to run uneven pace through 30km mark.
Debut run
He left Nairobi on Wednesday for his debut run in Chicago. Wanjiru’s the road to the 2008 Olympic marathon title and riches started seven years ago when, at 15, he caught the attention of Shunichi Kobayashi, a Japanese writer who has been scouting young Kenyan talent for two decades.
It will thus be Wanjiru’s fifth marathon in his relatively short two-year career as a marathoner.
After breaking into the 42km distance in 2007 with victory at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan, Wanjiru, also the world half marathon record holder, went on to win silver at the London Marathon in a sprint finish, losing to compatriot Martin Lel.
But he had his day in the sun at the Beijing Olympics last year when he won gold, clocking 2:06:32 to break the Olympic record by nearly three minutes, while Lel finished fifth. In April, he won his third marathon in London in his personal best time of 2:05:10.
His eighth place finish in the recent Rotterdam Half Marathon was good enough for him in the preparation for Chicago. He clocked 61 minutes.
“If I wanted to run under the one hour mark, I could have done so. But I was preparing for a marathon and did not want to expose myself and use all the energies I had,” he said.
Wanjiru is targeting a 2:04.00 run in Chicago on another flat course.
However, should the weather and pacemakers do a good job, breaking the world record of 2:03:59 set by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin a year ago is within his reach.
Wanjiru has carried his family wife Teresa and daughter Allie along.
Marathon majors
Records aside, Wanjiru is keen on winning the race more than setting a fast time as he seeks to become the third Kenyan after Robert Cheruiyot and Lel to win the lucrative World Marathon Majors series which comes with a jackpot prize of Sh38 million ($500,000).
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