MO FARAH FOR DUBAI MARATHON
Dubai Marathon is a long story. We started on November 27, 1998. I have seen the ups and downs of this event. We started with 50 runners and currently we are close to 36,000 runners. From a prize money of Dhs 10,000 to close to $1.2 million now.
With strong support from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and his office, in terms of prize money we are No. 1. Only the world record time is missing from the Dubai Marathon. In the last 5 to 6 years a lot of marathons reduced their prize money so we are still shining,” he said with a broad smile.
“But as far as the largest event is concerned it’s the London Marathon and we cannot be compared to them because officially they have 53,000 and unofficially 73,000 participants.
However, Dubai is a city where there is a lot of changes. Last year was a difficult year as suddenly the bridge came in the middle. We were planning everything for the world record but the bridge, in my opinion for the timing sake, killed the run. But we still had a time of 2.04 which is very good.
Recently Kamali says it is not his responsibility to make someone a champion. “It’s not only my responsibility, it should start from the athlete’s home, his parents, the society, the ministry of sports, from the chairman of the Olympic committee, the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medallist in both the 5000 and 10,000 metres, announced that the London World Championships would be his last event and henceforth would only run in marathons. Al Kamali was asked if he was their target for the next Dubai Marathon.
“I have a personal relationship with him. Marathon around the world has become a business, whoever offers top prize money will get top athletes. We had great runners runners like Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele run in Dubai. We hope Farah too will come and run here very soon. We do have him on our agenda. It could be a fight between us and London but we do hope to see him run in Dubai.”