The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe has expressed delight following the recognition of the Zimpost Post Insurance Mr Pace Race into an African and World Championships as well as Olympic qualifier.
Going into it's fourth year of existence, the latest development was revealed on Friday at the Post Insurance Promotions launch in Harare.
The Post Insurance Mr Pace Race is part of the Post Insurance Promotions by Zimpost along with it's partners Nicoz Diamond, Global Risk Underwriting Managers (Gruma ) and the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara).
Other promotions include the Post Insurance Ensure, Licence and Win as well as the Post Insurance Staff promotion.
"We are very happy as an association that we have officially launched Mr. Pace Post Insurance Race that will take place on 10 May in Harare, the National Sports Stadium. This event includes two major events, that is 21 kilometres and the 10 kilometres," NAAZ president Tendayi Tagara said.
"The critical part of the 10 kilometres is that the route is the only officially measured route internationally. So we are encouraging all 5 km, 10km and 21km runners to come and participate in this event, because that's the only place where they are going to be selected for the Olympics.
"For the World Championships that will be taking place in Japan in August and September, we used to go outside Zimbabwe to look for 10km race which is standard. But now that we have our own race in Zimbabwe.
"We want again to thank our major sponsors Zimpost ,Nicoz Diamond, Gruma and Zinara for the event. And we want to thank once again the sponsors for increasing the prizes for the 21km to US$700. This is one of the highest-paying half-marathon in Zimbabwe," he said.
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Competition will also be in the 1km diplomatic race while there will also be the veteran master, great grand master, junior and wheelchair classes.
The Post Insurance Mr Pace Race will be sponsored the tune of US$15 000 this year with 50% of the sponsorship package going towards prize money for the winners.
"We are excited that the Post Insurance Mr Pace Race is now an internationally recognised event. So we are going to give 50% of whatever we are sponsoring and this year we have set aside US$15 000 for the event.
"We want to move away from habit by sponsors where set aside a small fraction of the sponsorship package. This year we have increased the prize money for the winners of the different categories from US$500 to US$700. The top 5 in the 21km race will get prize money while the top three will get in the 5km race," GRUMA managing director Muvengwa Marumahoko said.
