By YVONNE SAKALA –
EIGHT countries are expected to take part in this year’s Lafarge Lusaka Marathon slated for April 29 at Levy Shopping Mall in Lusaka.
Lafarge chief executive officer Vincent Bouckaert said the marathon will continue to be a major event on the company’s calendar.
Bouckaert said this during the launch of the 2017 Lafarge sponsored Lusaka Marathon to be held under the theme ‘Run for Unity’.
He said this year’s marathon, which will be the fourth edition, will gobble K800,000, and that the company was looking forward to having more co-sponsors coming on board compared to last year.
Bouckaert said that apart from the Lusaka marathon serving as a sporting event promoting wellness in work places, it also continues to promote cohesion between different people and cultures.
He said the previous events have been a success and that this year’s should be better adding up to 5, 000 participants were targeted.
In order to achieve a higher number of participants, Bouckaert said the organisers have revised the entry fee downwards and called on more runners to register and be part of the marathon.
Bouckaert said the participation fee for the main marathon (42.2km) has been pegged at K 250 per person, same as the half marathon (21.1 km) while the 10km road race attracting a fee of K 150 and the 5km walk for K50.
“I am pleased to announce that we will have runners coming from various countries including Swaziland, France, United Kingdom, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, United States of America (USA) and South Africa,” he said.
Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) president Elias Mpondela said the association and Lafarge intend to make a long term goal of making the Lusaka Marathon an international event that would also attract participants from all over the World.
“We have to establish the Lusaka Marathon as one of the leading road race events here in the Southern region, we are thankful to the partners that came on board before and urge the corporate world to partner with Lafarge and ZAAA,” Mpondela said.