Wanjiru to buy mother a tractor from winnings

Abu Dhabi: Kenya's Samuel Wanjiru has decided to buy a tractor for his mother from the $300,000 that he won on Thursday for winning the men's event in the Zayed International Marathon here.

Minutes after winning the 21-km Half marathon, the record holder said, "I want to get my mother a tractor. My mum (Hanna Wanjiru) has a 5-acre maize field and now she can employ a driver and relax a bit.

"I owe it to my mother, who is a single parent and I hope I can make her happy and comfortable," said Wanjiru, whose mum and 18-year-old brother are based in their home city of Nyahunn about 200kms from the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

"My brother Simon is also a long distance runner and hopefully he can also graduate into a good athlete," said the current record holder of the Half Marathon.

"I will definitely come back next year to take part in this event. It was a good race but the heat and humidity was a bit on the higher side," he said.

"I was running today at my own pace. Maybe I will go for the record next time."

Wanjiru said he will now train for the London Marathon and then for the Beijing Olympics. Wanjiru, who has a training base in Japan will now be going back to Kenya and train there for the London event. "It is very cold in Japan now so I will be training in Kenya," he said.

This is Wanjiru's second win in the UAE and he had earlier finished first in the RAK Marathon two seasons ago.