Kasese — Ugandan long-distance runner Leonard Chemonges has won the men’s 42.2km race at the fifth Tusker Lite Mt Rwenzori Marathon in Kasese, setting a new course record and earning Shs40 million and an electric motorcycle.
Chemonges completed the race in 2:13:25 on Saturday, August 22, 2026, lowering the previous course record of 2:14:59 set by fellow Ugandan Alex Chelangat in 2024. World Athletics’ official results confirmed Chemonges as the winner, ahead of compatriots Alex Mutai and Fred Cherotwo.
Mutai finished second in 2:13:36, while Cherotwo was third in 2:13:49. They received Shs20 million and Shs10 million respectively.
The victory was a significant turnaround for Chemonges, who had finished fourth in the 2024 edition and eighth last year. He had spent three months preparing for this year’s race after finishing 10th at the Daegu Marathon in South Korea in February in 2:14:33.
“I feel good to have won this race. I woke up feeling good, and the race was good,” Chemonges said after the finish. He said the prize money would help him invest in land or cattle.
Kenyan Margaret Japchumba won the women’s 42.2km race in 2:39:15, taking the same Shs40 million prize and an electric motorcycle. Ugandans Vanis Chemutai and Joan Chebet finished second and third in 2:43:32 and 2:44:08 respectively.
In the 21.1km race, Uganda’s Abel Chebet won the men’s category in 1:02:00, claiming his fourth victory in the five editions of the marathon. Sam Yeko finished second in 1:02:02, followed by Oscar Kibet in 1:02:44.
Gloria Chebet completed an all-Ugandan podium in the women’s 21.1km race, winning in 1:12:10 ahead of Prisca Chesang Chemweno and Viola Chemos Munerya.
The 2026 edition also marked a major milestone for the race after it became Uganda’s first World Athletics Label Road Race. The status places the event on the international athletics calendar and recognises it for meeting standards covering course measurement, timing, race operations and elite participation.
More than 8,000 runners participated in this year’s event, with reports indicating that registered participants came from more than 40 countries. The race was also broadcast live through the World Athletics YouTube channel for the first time.
Organisers have positioned the marathon as more than a sporting competition, using the event to promote Kasese and the Rwenzori region as destinations for sports and tourism.
The growth of the marathon raises a larger question for Uganda’s tourism industry: can sport become a serious way of taking visitors beyond Kampala and the traditional tourism circuit?
For Kasese, the answer is increasingly visible on the roads — thousands of runners moving through the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon, turning a marathon into an annual encounter between athletics, landscape and tourism.
