KIGALI, May 21 -- Chinese runners are among a group of 3,500 athletes who will line up for the 7th edition of international peace marathon in Kigali on Sunday.

Organizers said runners from Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Australia are expected to participate in the marathon, an event dedicated to raise awareness for peace and support for widows and orphans of the genocide against Tutsis in 1994.

The marathon track will run up and down several hills in the Kigali suburbs, the Rwanda's ministry of Sports and Culture said in a statement issued Saturday.

Seventeen years ago, close to a million ethnic Tutsis and Hutus were killed in Rwanda in a genocide that lasted about 100 days.

Organizers of the marathon hope that publicity around the event will help shed its image of a war-ravaged country by showing "a positive image of a country under construction", the statement said.

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