NEW YORK // Ben True became the first American since 2007 to win the UAE Healthy Kidney 10-kilometre race on Saturday, beating a field of top athletes that included an Olympic medallist and the marathon world record holder.
The race ended in a photo finish in Central Park, with Mr True and Stephen Sambu of Kenya both finishing at 28 minutes and 33 seconds. Mr True edged over the line ahead of Mr Sambu.
On a hot, humid day, the runners failed to break the race’s four-year-old record of 27 minutes 35 seconds, leaving the US$30,000 (Dh110,170) Zayed Bonus on the table.
“These guys are some of the biggest names in road racing, so any time I’m able to race with Sambu and be anywhere near him I call it a victory,” said Mr True. “It’s a nice confidence boost” ahead of the track and field world championship qualifiers, he said.
Joyce Chepkirui of Kenya was the fastest woman, finishing at 32 minutes 33 seconds.
The race, in its 11th year, had a record turnout. About 13,000 people registered for the 11,000 available spots. About 8,000 runners took part last year, said the organisers.
This year’s professional runners vied for the $25,000 first-place purse, the richest of any 10km race in the world. It is now a qualifying race for professional athletes hoping to compete in the season’s biggest race, the New York City Marathon.
The race, which is sponsored by the UAE Embassy, benefits the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). It began in 2005 as part of the UAE’s public diplomacy initiatives in the United States, and many of them focused on supporting medical research and health awareness.
The UAE’s partnership with the NKF stems in part from the kidney ailment that the Founding President Sheikh Zayed had been suffering from, and the kidney transplant he had received in the US.
The UAE, like the US, has above global averages in diseases that lead to chronic kidney diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and high blood pressure.
The UAE-NKF 10km race was expanded to Abu Dhabi and Cairo. The race organisers hope to hold annual UAE 10km races in Washington and Los Angeles in the near future.
The non-profit NKF is the largest kidney disease advocacy group in the US. It has received $1.5 million over the past decade from the UAE, which has allowed it to expand its awareness efforts and offer screening services to at-risk, low-income communities across the US, according to Paul Irwin-Dudek, a senior vice president at the NKF.
The funding has also contributed to the creation of clinical reference guidelines that improve care for people with kidney disease globally, and has helped develop the world’s largest database on such diseases.
But the UAE-sponsored 10km race’s most important role is in raising awareness about the prevalence of kidney disease, the risk factors and the basic steps to help prevent developing the disease and diagnosing it before it is too late.
About 26 million Americans suffer from kidney disease, but only 10 per cent of them have been diagnosed because there are typically no early-stage symptoms. About 450,000 Americans are on dialysis for kidney failure, according to the NKF, and another 100,000 are on the waiting list for kidney transplants.
Sally Matos, 57, a social work student from the borough of Queens, has long been an avid distance runner. But this year she was being cheered on from the sidelines by her nephew Jason, to whom she donated a kidney three years ago.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
