MIRRIAM Sibanda and Owen Slowly shone at the Moonlight Pink Ribbons of Hope half marathon at Falcon Golf Club in the capital after emerging top of the crop in the men’s and women’s main 21km events respectively.
Sibanda (Mr Pace), who clocked 1hr 25:40 min to win the women’s 21km race ahead of Ethel Pangiso (ZRP) and Phillipa Dube who finished second and third respectively, was pleased with her efforts.
“It’s a great win for me. I have been doing well this year and was confident that I would also pull something off here today (yesterday) and I am glad that has happened,” said Sibanda. Slowly, who clocked 1hr 7:13 minutes to win the men’s main 21km race ahead of Golden Mhonderwa and Kenya’s Isaac Langat, was delighted with his win.
“I am happy to have won. It’s my first time to have come out as number one and I would like to pay tribute to the sponsors Moonlight for coming up with events such as this one which go a long way in preparing us for other big events.
The race was tough at the start but I managed to pull away after the 13km mark to win,” said Slowly. In other races, Wellington Varevi won the men’s 10km race, while Caroline Mhandu was the winner in the women’s 10km event.
Stella Jongwe reigned supreme in the women’s wheelchair race with Munyaradzi Katiyo emerging tops in the men’s wheelchair race. Seasoned athlete Rudo Mhonderwa won the women’s 5km race, while Moonlight Funeral Assurance chief executive officer Chomi Makina lauded participants for turning out in their numbers to support the battle against cancer.
“We are very excited for this second edition of the Moonlight Cancer Trust half marathon we have had a lot of responses and the event was actually oversubscribed and we also have got a lot of corporates that have come through to support this event and make it a success,” said Makina.
“It’s very important that we have this campaign every year because cancer is a scourge in Zimbabwe. We have sloe seen that lot of our clients are dying as a result of cancer related ailments and we want to play our part in mitigating deaths by cancer by promoting wellness among our clients and sport is one of the best ways to do that.”
Moonlight Funeral Assurance public relations manager Noway Museba said the Moonlight Cancer Trust was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.
“We are really excited to have managed to attract at least 1 000 athletes and 62 corporates which turned up to support this initiative and we are grateful that the corporate world wants to give back to the society and since this is an annual event that we want to become a permanent feature on the country’s sporting calendar.
We are also happy that we managed to attract athletes from various areas within Zimbabwe such as Midlands, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Matabeleland and even Manicaland,” said Museba.
One of the event partner Baby & Me , said participating in yesterday’s event was driven by a desire to play a positive role in the ongoing fight against cancer.
“We are very excited to be part of this noble cause, we saw it fit to contribute towards the fight against cancer. So as Baby and Me we usually deal with women and children and we know that women are the most vulnerable to cancer illness. So we felt that it was important for us to join Moonlight in raising awareness and resources to fight against Cancer,” said Babe & Me representative Rumbidzai Magaya