The Tusker Lite Rwenzori Marathon has confirmed a total prize purse of UGX 252 million for its 2026 edition – more than 2.7 times the UGX 92 million awarded in 2025. The fifth edition of the race takes place in Kasese on 22 August 2026.

The marathon winner in each field now takes UGX 40 million, up fourfold from UGX 10 million last year, with prize money paid down to sixth place. The half marathon pays UGX 15 million to the winner in each field, also down to sixth place. Men and women receive equal prize money at every position.

The announcement comes as the race marks its fifth anniversary since launching in 2022, with around 8,000 runners expected in Kasese and athletes signed up from 26 countries.

The bigger purse follows the race's award of World Athletics Label Road Race status in 2026, a designation held by only around 200 races worldwide and confirming that the Rwenzori Marathon meets international standards for course measurement, elite participation, timing, and race operations. It is the only World Athletics Label road race in Uganda. Government has since committed to helping the race reach World Athletics Gold Label status, the tier occupied by the world's largest and most competitive marathons.

The purse is built to do two things: give Ugandan and East African runners a serious reason to train hard and stay in the sport, and put the region's course — from the Equator in Queen Elizabeth National Park to the finish beneath the Rwenzori Mountains — on the calendar of international elite athletes.

The ambition echoes a point made by State Minister for Sports, Hon. Peter Ogwang, at the government's recent backing of the race: "We have seen our children run in London, New York, Amsterdam – but here we haven't had a product where you can run and perform and win at home."

"Quadrupling the winner's prize in one year is a statement of where we are going," said Amos Wekesa, founder of the Tusker Lite Rwenzori Marathon. "We want a Ugandan runner in Kasese to know that if they are good enough, there is real money and a real stage waiting for them at home. And we want the best runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and beyond to look at this race and decide Kasese is worth travelling to. You build a great marathon by making it worth the journey, on both counts."

The World Athletics Label Road Race regulations set out four tiers – World Athletics Label, Elite, Gold and Platinum – with rising requirements at each level for the strength of the elite field, the depth and size of the guaranteed prize money, anti-doping testing, and race operations. As holders of the World Athletics Label, the base tier carries no minimum prize-money requirement, so this year's increase is a voluntary one. Moving up to Elite and then Gold status calls for a world-class elite field and substantially higher guaranteed prize money, paid at least eight places deep in the marathon. The purse announced today is the first step in a longer plan, backed by government, to make the Tusker Lite Rwenzori Marathon an Elite and ultimately a Gold Label race in the years ahead.

The 2026 Tusker Lite Rwenzori Marathon offers four distances – 42km, 21km, 10km and 5km – starting at the Equator and finishing in Kasese town.

Prize money breakdown (2026)

Men and women receive equal prize money at every position.

Marathon (42km)

Half Marathon (21km)