Beijing 2008: Uganda finishes 3rd in Greatest Race On Earth Marathon

KAMPALA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has finished 3rd in the Greatest Race On Earth Marathon after its last leg runner Francis Yiga clocked two hours 27 minutes and 53 seconds over the weekend in Hong Kong.

Yiga, who holds the personal best record of 2 hours 18 minutes and 47 seconds, failed to run under 2 hours 18 minutes to achieve his target of qualifying for the World Athletics Championships set for August in Osaka, Japan

However, Yiga's performance on Sunday still helped Ugandan team finish third overall with an accumulated time of 9 hours 30 minutes and 37 seconds behind winner team Kenya and second-placed Zimbabwe.

Uganda led after the first two legs ran by Moses Cherop in Nairobi and Joseph Nsubuga in Singapore but fell to third positionin the Mumbai leg ran by national marathon record holder Alex Malinga.

Team Uganda was rewarded with 5,000 US dollars while Zimbabwe collected 15,000 dollars and Kenya pocketed 30,000 dollars.