Former World Marathon Champion Douglas Wakiihuri chose Bermuda to make his surprise return to competitive road racing after 12 years out of the sport.And it is the goodwill the Island has shown towards his project to help slum children in Nairobi that inspired him to make his racing comeback here.One of Kenya's greatest distance runners, with victories in the London and New York marathons, Commonwealth Games and a silver medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics he competed in last Sunday's Fairmont to Fairmont 7.2-mile road race and finished a highly creditable fifth.He arrived in Bermuda only 36 hours earlier having flown in from his home in Nairobi.The Kenyan legend is making a return to the Island exactly a year after his first visit when he had been a spectator at the Bermuda International Race Weekend.This time Wakiihuri, now 47, was determined to compete in a few road races even though two decades have passed since he was at his world-beating best.The reason is to further raise awareness of a school and youngsters' running group he is involved with in Kibera, the second largest urban slum in Africa,“Since last year I have lost 40 kilos. Wherever I can I will race to increase awareness of Kibera,” he said.Last year Wakiihuri departed from Bermuda with two holdalls full of t-shirts and tracksuits, donated by the Mid Atlantic Athletic Club (MAAC), to be distributed to the Kibera slum youngsters who train with Wakiihuri. The items made a big difference to the poor youngsters, many of whom had never had t-shirts of their own.This was followed by donations of running shoes from Japan, a country where Wakiihuri famously lived and trained when he was a world-leading distance runner.At the Fairmont to Fairmont race number pick-up specially designed Hiscox-sponsored ‘Kibera Kids' t-shirts were sold. The money raised is now expected to help feed the schoolchildren and running group in Kibera for around six months.Wakiihuri intends to further raise awareness of the ‘Kibera Kids' project during this weekend's Bermuda Marathon Weekend, where he aims to compete in the Bermuda Triangle Half Challenge running a mile race on Friday night, a 10K on Saturday and a half-marathon on Sunday.MAAC, along with Island runner Victoria Fiddick, assisted in covering the costs to bring Wakiihuri back to Bermuda.In turn, Wakiihuri feels that he can repay some of that faith and goodwill by showing up for races so that people can see the former world champion compete once again, and learn about the ‘Kibera Kids'.In last Sunday's Fairmont to Fairmont race he ran a time of 44 minutes 11 seconds. Although he wants to do more speed work to sharpen up, he said: “I was pleased to see that as a runner I can come back after so many years.”