Elite athletes from across Africa and beyond have confirmed their participation in the 20th edition of the Kigali International Peace Marathon which will take place on June 8 The marathon is bringing together top long-distance runners vying for medals in the full marathon (42.1km), half marathon (21km). There will also be a routine Run for Peace (10km) which is normally extended to amateurs. Times Sport suggest some of the start athletes expected in Kigali for the 2025 race. Laban Kipngetich Korir (Kenya) Kenyan long distance runner is back in Kigali to defend the gold medal he won in the same marathon race in 2024. The 39-year-old athlete struck gold in the men's full marathon clocking two hours, 16 minutes and six seconds. He is currently part of the NN Running Team, an international team of elite long-distance runners managed by Global Sports Communication in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Korir not only won the Kigali Peace Marathon. He also struck gold in the 2014 Toronto Waterfront Marathon while, in 2016, he raced at the Paris Marathon and finished as runner up. He also finished in 11th place at the 2019 World Athletics Championship held in Doha, Qatar. He records the Personal Best of 2:05:41 which he achieved in 2022. ALSO READ: Rwandan athletes join camp ahead of Kigali Marathon 2025 Jonathan Kipleting Korir (Kenya) Korir competes in road running competitions, including marathons. He is a two-time winner of the Venice Marathon in Italy, with consecutive wins in 2006 and 2007. He also won the 2010 Beppu-Oita Marathon. Korir, 43, also competes over the half marathon and has wins from the Rome-Ostia half marathon in Italy and Porto half marathon in Portugal. His personal best in the marathon is 2:04:32, achieved in 2021, and 01:00:19 in the half marathon. Shadrack Kimining (Kenya) Shadrack won his first ever race abroad at the Cardiff Marathon in 2016. He also won bronze in the same race seven years later. He then struck gold at the 2018 Gothenburg half marathon. He recently hit a personal best 2:08:29 in the marathon. Dejene Debela Gonfa (Ethiopia) An Ethiopian long distance runner, Gonfa twice won the Xiamen International Marathon both in 2018 and in 2019. The 30-year-old also won the Beijing Marathon in 2018 and the finished in 2nd place with a personal best of 2:05:46 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon. ALSO READ: Can Rwandan Athletics stand up and be counted? Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) Shauri is among new faces traveling to Kigali eyeing her first medal at the Peace Marathon and her experience in long-distance race put her in a position to win a medal. The 29-year-old competed in the women’s marathon at the 2017 World Championship in Athletics. In 2019, she competed in the senior women’s race at the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championship. Shauri finished in 49th place in the 2024 Olympic Games marathon event in Paris, she also holds the Tanzanian record for the marathon (women) with a time of 2:18:41. She set that record at the 2013 Berlin Marathon where she finished in 3rd place. Viola Jelagat Kibiwot (Kenya) Kibiwot is Kenyan athlete who specializes in the 1500 metres. She won her first international medal as a junior runner at the 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championship, where she took the bronze medal for Kenya. Consecutive world junior cross-country titles followed at the 2001 and 2002 editions of the event. She also claimed the gold medal over 1500m at the 2002 World Junior Championship in Athletics. The 42-year-old changed her focus to longer distances as a result and performed better on the world stage, taking sixth place at the 2012 Olympic 5000m and fourth at the 2013 World Championships 5000m finals. At the 2013 World Cross Country Championship, she helped Kenya to the team title with her seventh-place finish. An outing over four miles on the roads in October 2013 saw her run the world best for the distance, as she completed the 4 Mijl van Groningen race in nineteen and twenty seconds.
