Moses Tarakinyu and Ethel Pangiso won the inaugural Moonlight Funeral Assurance half-marathon charity fun run, men and women category respectively, at Falcon Golf Club in Harare yesterday.
Over 1 000 participants took part in the initiative, which was meant to raise funds towards the company’s Cancer Trust.
A seasoned long distance runner, Tarakinyu crossed the line in 1 hour 05 minutes 34 seconds ahead of Godwin Katura (1.07.03) and Tawanda Bvunzawabaya (1.08.15) in second and third respectively.
Pangiso romped home in 1 hour 27 minutes 15 second with Mariam Sibanda second arriving 10 minutes later while Fortunate Chidzivo was third.
“I'm very grateful to Moonlight and Musabvunda for hosting such an event, because it promotes us as athletes and I want to thank God that I managed to win it. As usual we had top athletes in the race but I did my best to win it,” Tarakinyu said.
Pangiso felt happy to win the ‘tough’ race
“It was a tough race, the competition had top athletes but I'm happy that I was prepared enough and I did win it. I want to thank Moonlight for coming up with this competition as it will also help us to support our families through the prizes that we have won,” the ZRP athlete said.
Wellington Warevi won the men’s 10km race while Patience Murove won the women’s.
Some of the event partners that include Morelife Water founder Nigel Makina and Musabvunda Apparel manager Tafadzwa Masango were excited to have partnered Moonlight for the noble cause.
“As Morelife Water we are very grateful to have partnered Moonlight and Musabvunda Apparel for their noble cause of raising funds that will go towards cancer trust and we are happy that the outcome was very good,”said Makina.
Moonlight chief executive officer Dr Chomi Makina was excited by the success of the event.
“We are so excited as Moonlight that we have managed to host our half marathon and we are very happy with the support that we have got from various cooperates and even the athletes who have participated in this initiative that we mainly focus on raising funds for our cancer trust and also Moonlight tree foundation.
“The event has been necessitated by our need as an organisation to play our role in helping people suffering from cancer because we also noticed that cancer-related deaths are increasing because people can't afford the treatment.
“So it is our target as an organisation in playing our role in helping them and ensuring that people live a healthy life,” said Dr Makina.
Gospel musician Dorcas Moyo provided the entertainment.
