The authorities are putting last-minute preparations in place for the Saturday February 14, 2015 event.

Preparations for this year’s edition of the international race up and down Mount Cameroon slated for next Saturday have reached high gear. The city of Buea, host of the event, is in its brightest outfit to receive the thousands of visitors pouring in for the sporting carnival.

Posters of the major sponsor, Guinness, are visible throughout the city. While the various hotels are inundated with booking calls, the different local committees charged with organising the race are busy finalising their touches to ensure a hitch-free occasion. The porters committee whose main duty is to ensure the distribution of water to athletes and officials along the race course were singled out to enlist a smooth functioning without complaints again.

Kick off at 7am on 14 February is expected to be propelled by Cameroon’s Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Adoum Garoua, at the Molyko Omnisport Stadium. Runners expected from ten countries will brave 38 km ascending and descending the mountain on an altitude of 4,100 m. It is the second running year in a newfound three-year sponsorship contract between the Cameroon Athletics Federation and the international brewery, Guinness, signed on 26 August, 2013, after their 10-year recess. By the contract Guinness will, among other sponsors, inject a good chunk of the FCFA 300 million earmarked to fund the event.

As a prelude to the crowd-pulling sporting event, a press conference was granted in Buea last Monday by the national President of the Cameroon Athletics Federation, Emmanuel Mbome Motomby. Innovations to enliven the event this year were announced to include the flame of hope that arrives in Buea by mid day tomorrow (Friday). It opened its national journey in Ngaoundere last 26 December 2014 and has since visited all Regional capitals announcing the race for Buea. The blaze is accompanied on its path by kid-athletes as a sign of unflinching hope for the future of the sovereign sporting event in Cameroon.

Two categories of the race will unfold Saturday namely the full-marathon (38km) and the half-marathon (19km). The main race (full-marathon) will fetch FCFA 10 million for the first position, FCFA five million for the second and FCFA two million for the third.

The half-marathon, parallel to the main race, will obtain FCFA three million for the first arrival, FCFA 1,250,000 for the second and FCFA 500,000 for the third. These prizes apply equally for both male and female winners. The Buea press conference announced that some 500 athletes have been registered for the race with 29 foreign athletes.