admin
Sports Reporter
THE NetOne Albun Honde Valley Marathon was launched yesterday with the organisers hoping to promote fitness and wellness, tourism and awareness on global warming.
The marathon is scheduled for November 18.
The race is the brainchild of former Zimbabwe national football team and CAPS United player Alois Bunjira. He is one of the directors at Albun Fitness Club.
Besides the marathon, there is a half marathon on offer and a 10km race.
“Basically the background of this marathon is coming from Albun Fitness Club. We are a fitness club that is based in Harare.
“So, we decided we wanted to do a marathon. Then we saw Honde Valley as the most ideal place to do it because we wanted to incorporate it with tourism and also awareness for global warming and climate change.
“So we thought that was the best place to actually send out those messages. So that’s why we chose Honde Valley and, on a biased level, it’s my rural home. I was born there so it made it an easy decision for us to go there.”
Winners for the marathon will get US$500, both men and women. The second and third placed athletes will get US$300 and US$200 respectively.
Bunjira said they are expecting around 350 participants for the event.
Registration is already underway.
“We are expecting a lot of athletes to come. I know some former footballers have already registered… There are also some Members of Parliament who have registered, a few cabinet members as well.
“But I am not sure about professional runners, probably because we are not handling the registration of the athletes… But I am expecting a lot of people from all walks of life, different sporting codes, different professions to actually come and take part in the marathon,” said Bunjira.
Several partners have come on board to support the marathon including NetOne, who are the main sponsors.
NetOne acting head of retail and sales Kenneth Potsekayi said they are looking forward to the event.
“As NetOne we are really very serious about maintaining the environment and ensuring that we keep the environment in a good state. And to us it resonates with our vision of ensuring that whatever that we do in terms of our operations is environmentally friendly.
“So to us we value fitness, and we value the environment so much, and for us it was a very easy decision to say let’s be part of this big event and we are really hoping that it’s going to be a very big event indeed,” said Potsekayi.
First Mutual Microfinance credit and operations manager Elisha Makwarimba said they were excited about the race and are hoping it becomes an annual event.
Online Reporter