ZAAA to raise K550m from Inter-Company Relay
By Sports Reporter
THE Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) hopes to raise about K550 million from this year’s Inter-Company Relay (ICR) scheduled for May 19 at the Lusaka Showgrounds.
Association president, Elias Mpondela, said during the launch of 2007 event at Suwilanji Gardens in Lusaka, that from the targeted K550 million, K300 million would be for organising the event while the remaining K250 million would be used for other ZAAA projects.
Mpondela said 17 companies had so far confirmed participation in this year’s relay to be staged under the theme ‘Acting Together We Can Win’ and that the organising committee was working hard to net the targeted 150 companies.
The companies that have so far come on board are Sandvik who are sponsoring two teams - one chief executive and a team of 10 walkers, Zambia State Insurance Corporation (ZSIC), who apart from fielding two teams and one chief executive, will cover insurance for all participants including the organising committee.
Other participating firms will be Zambian Breweries, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), Parmalat, Celtel, Radio Phoenix, Toyota Zambia, MTN, Manzi Valley, Standard Chartered Bank, Lusaka City Council, Chilanga Cement and Share International.
Mpondela said the association had decided to embrace people living with sickle cell in this year’s event to join in the walking race which started last year.
“Our main focus is to create a platform for HIV/AIDS information dissemination. But apart from that, we also want to create breast cancer and sickle cell awareness. We will work with the foundation of people living with sickle cell and the Breakthrough Cancer Trust,” he said.
The ZAAA president, who is chairing the organising committee, said the trophy for the breast cancer walkers had been introduced this year in memory of deputy Chief Justice David Lewanika’s wife, Maureen, who died of breast cancer last year.
Mpondela said this year’s participation fees had been pegged at K2.5 million per team of eight runners in the 11.5-kilometre main race, while the 200-metre chief executives’ race would attract a fee of K1 million for each runner while individual runners would be required to pay K100, 000.
