common wrote:My feeling is, there is no reason that the total prize purse of the race should sit at less than 10K for top three men, women, and masters when we've got 150K of major sponsor dollars and 300K in race fees coming in. I would argue for most races of this size across the country, it's not that they couldn't increase prize/developmental funding by a factor of two or three, it's that they don't want to. Why split up an extra 20K among the racers when you can split it up among five or six charities and get sponsor's names in the newspaper? You'll never get the priority over charity, but if the balance can be changed to highlight performance over participation, it will go a long way toward supporting athlete development.
From an article in the Nairobi Standard:
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“We have noted with great concern how race organisers receive huge amounts of money from sponsors, but pay winners peanuts.
It does not make sense when a race is sponsored to a tune of Sh20 million and the winner receives Sh75,000,” added AK chairman, Isaiah Kiplagat.
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Looks like this happens everywhere!