Soca star Kees Dieffenthaller gave the launch of the 10th annual UWI SPEC International Half-Marathon a bit of celebrity swag, two Fridays ago.
As the official spokesperson for this year’s race, Kees got things off to an exciting start from the word go by initiating a friendly rivalry between CNC3’s newscaster Golda Lee Bruce and radio talk show host and entertainer Jason “JW” Williams, who are both running the half-marathon on behalf of charities that they support.
Bruce and Williams are two of ten specially invited persons, dubbed “The 10”, who are aiming to win support for their charities by asking the public to give $10 (or more!) by texting to their special code. Dieffenthaller made the very first contribution to JW’s charity, Break the Silence, which raises awareness about child sexual abuse. This quickly prompted Minister of Sport Anil Roberts to contribute to Bruce’s charity, the Guardian’s Neediest Cases Fund.
The 10th edition of the University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Education Centre (UWI SPEC) Half-Marathon will take place on Sunday, October 27, and the university is pulling out all the stops to make it memorable. This year promises to be the biggest yet.
The presenting sponsor is again First Citizens, which has been a stalwart of support for the race over the last decade. The bank was represented at the media launch by Jason Julien, General Manager of First Citizens Investment Services. Sports Minister Anil Roberts delivered the feature address.
Fans and supporters can donate $10 or more to the charities by texting donations to the code assigned to each. The ten codes are available on the event’s website, http://sta.uwi.edu/spec/marathon and The UWI’s Facebook and Twitter pages. “Text to Pledge” is supported by Digicel.
Registration for the race is now open. Local runners aged 15-19 pay $50 each, while runners 20 and over pay $100 each. Payments can be made at any First Citizens branch. Registration ends at five p.m. on October 18, or once 1,010 persons have registered.
In the 2012 edition of the UWI SPEC International Half-Marathon, Kenyan-born American George Towett won the men’s race, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Tonya Nero was first among the women.