AFTER finishing outside the top ten in last year’s Kigali International Marathon, two-time Olympian Epiphanie Nyirabarame is desperate to make amends this time round.

This year’s edition is scheduled for May 22 and Sylvain Rukundo, Gervais Nizeyimana and Godfrey Rutayisire are some of the renowned local athletes currently training at Amahoro stadium.

Besides impressing in the marathon, the quartet will also use the race as a build up to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Nyirabarame will compete in three IAAF races between June and September as she chases for the Games’ minimum qualification time.

Last year, Rashid Safari emerged as Rwanda’s best athlete after clocking 2hours, 32 minutes and 45 seconds to finish 9th.Peter Limo of Kenya claimed the marathon in 2:19:44.

The marathon is divided into five categories; full marathon (42km), half marathon (21km), 10.54km marathon team relays, 5km course for children and 5km run for fun race.

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