ENTEBBE, Uganda, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Three runners who won the 2019 Entebbe Marathon held on Saturday are slated to travel to China to attend the Wuhan Marathon, which is two weeks away.

Thousands of people participated in the marathon held here 40km south of the Ugandan capital Kampala.

The annual event sponsored by Sinocham, a Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Uganda, aimed at improving the welfare and performance of pupils in Universal Primary Education schools in Entebbe Municipality.

Vincent De Paul Kayanja, mayor of Entebbe Municipality, told reporters that they collected 34,000 U.S. dollars from last year's event.

He said the money was used to renovate 15 schools in the municipality.

Chen Huixin, deputy chief of staff at the Chinese embassy here said China will continue to support the marathon.

"We will provide three air tickets for those who win to compete with other international runners in China," Chen said.

Andrew Diegon won the 21km category, Primo Agotrae won the 10km while Brian Baguma won the 5km category.