Emmanuel Motomby Mbome, President of the Cameroon Athletics Federation, talks on this year's Mount Cameroon Race on February 27, 2016.

Two days to the kick off of the race, how prepared are you to host this event?

We are operating from the national level. However the Governor of the South west region, Okalia Bilai, who is the chairperson of the local organization committee is doing everything possible to make sure the event is successful this year.

He has held several meetings with the various committees at work. I believe Buea is ready to welcome the race. The Molyko stadium is ready, canopies set up, jerseys and branding gadgets made available by Guinness. The military has made available a helicopter that will help in the aerial coverage of the race.

There is the peculiarity this year that the Molyko stadium that used to host the departure and arrival of the race is under renovation for the Feminine AFCON, is this not going to affect the organisation of the race?

We dispatched our technical department thrice to Buea to prospect where they deemed it fit to organise this event and they retained the esplanade of the Molyko stadium.  The Guinness Mount Cameroon Race of hope is a race of national sovereignty and an annual event. So we thought it would not be good to take the race away from Molyko just for one edition. So we did everything possible to maintain tradition and give the event the magnitude it deserves. How far are you gone with the qualification races for the event and go you have an idea about the number of athletes qualified so far?

Qualification races have taken place in Ngaoudere, Buea, Bamenda, Yaounde, Bertoua, Bafoussam and Douala. We do these test races in order to choose the best from each Region so that we don’t have a catastrophe up the mountain. We thank the President of the Republic for granting subventions to federations through the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education. It is this money that enabled us to organise these test races.

There are going to be 721 participants including athletes coming from foreign countries like the United States, Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Kenya, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. Gone are the days when foreign athletes used to come here and collect prizes. This time it is going to be very competitive. There are so many innovations that people are going to witness in Buea this time because the race is going to be best organised this year.

The contract within Guinness ends this year. Will you renew the contract?

If you are used to using a particular track to the farm and have no problems, then you should continue doing so. We decided to change the name of the race to Guinness Mount Cameroon Race of Hope. It would not be nice to change that name only after three years to something else. So I think Guinness should take its responsibility and stand firm by the race. Guinness has been a good partner and we will obviously like to continue the partnership.