Chinese-sponsored relay race held in Ethiopia's capital after COVID-19 hiatus

A Chinese-sponsored 8-km relay race held in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, after three years hiatus due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The 17th edition of the competition, which involved professional and amateur runners, was sponsored and co-hosted by the International First Highway (IFH) Engineering, a branch company of China Communication Construction Company (CCCC), in partnership with the Great Ethiopian Run (GER) and the Addis Ababa City Roads Authority (AACRA).

The year's edition of the competition was held Sunday on the Alexander Pushkin Square-Gotera Interchange Road Project, which is a 3.8 km road that incorporates three segments and construction of a two-lane 320 meters tunnel, that was carried out by IFH Engineering/CCCC.

Moges Tibebu, Director-General of AACRA, told Xinhua that the competition envisaged to promote road safety while at the same time to create a culture of healthy lifestyle among the general public.

"The very big purpose of this event is for road safety. There were plenty of car accidents and lots of injuries have occurred in the last years. Fortunately, due to such kind of promotional events and different initiatives that we have (implemented), there is a decrease in the fatality and injuries in road accidents," Tibebu said.

The director-general further emphasized the importance of building a culture of road traffic safety. He commended the Chinese government and companies for their continued support in terms of support to road projects as well as in terms of promoting road safety in the East African country.

"We have been collaborating with the Chinese firm CCCC/IFH in bringing this event to happen and we will be continuing collaborating for the success of this project. We would like to thank the government of China for their support in the implementation of this mega project, which alleviates the chronic traffic congestion problem that was exhibited around the area," he said.

This year's edition of the race attracted some 100 teams representing a range of business and other organizations across eight categories, according to the organizers.

Wei Qiangyu, General Manager of CCCC East Africa Branch, on his part said the company strives both towards the construction of quality road infrastructures as well as in terms of promoting road safety in Ethiopia.

"Road safety has always been the focus of the road infrastructure developers. As a prominent international and experienced contractor in Ethiopia, we had always put road safety as the prior concern of the road construction by guaranteeing the quality throughout the whole design and construction period," Wei said.

"We are proud that this race is held on this newly completed beautiful road constructed by CCCC/IFH Engineering," the general manager said, as he affirmed the company's keen intent to continue supporting the relay race.

IFH Engineering first sponsored the competition back in 2004 to mark the completion of the eastern stretch of the Addis Ababa Ring Road. After the third edition of the relay in 2006, the event was moved to other locations in the city to mark the opening of other new roads built by the company in collaboration with AACRA.

Gashaw Workineh, whose team won second place in the business category, said the competition is a "very good" platform to promote road safety while also creating awareness towards sporting activities among the public.

"Our team participated in this relay competition for the first time, and we are happy that we finished second. It is very innovative to use sporting events to promote road safety. It also promotes a healthy lifestyle," Workineh said.

The most recent edition of the competition, the 16th edition, took place three years ago in 2019 before the race was interrupted for three years following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.