Sierra Leone Marathon 2014
by David Waugh
SIERRA LEONE MARATHON 2014: Nearly 1000 runners participate to support Sierra Leone’s most vulnerable children
26th May 2014: The third annual Street Child Sierra Leone Marathon received huge support from competitors around the world yesterday when the event returned to Makeni in Northern Sierra Leone; a total of 936 men and women competed, making this the biggest Sierra Leone Marathon to date.
The marathon event was won for the first time by Osman Challey with a time of 2hrs40mins. The Sierra Leonean was met by a rapturous crowd as he entered the stadium to claim this year’s title. Second place went to Idrissa Kargbo, who won the inaugural event in 2012 and has since competed in both the New York and London Marathons.
In the women’s category, Adama S Kamara, also from Sierra Leone, was the first across the finish line with a time of 3hrs45mins.
Nearly 150 competitors flew in from nine different nations to spend their week visiting Street Child’s projects and enjoying Sierra Leone’s legendary hospitality. All of them have been hard at work raising funds to support the children, families and teachers that they had the opportunity to meet through project visits during their trip. Close to £200,000 has already been raised with significantly more anticipated as runners return to their home nations over the course of this week.
