CitCo and NSC Host First Belize City Half Marathon
The National Sports Council and the Belize City Council have teamed up and will be hosting the first ever Belize City Half Marathon on Sunday. The event was to be held during the month of September as part of the annual celebration activities, but was postponed due to the pandemic. They are now forging ahead and lucrative prizes will be up for grabs for male and female runners, amateurs and professionals. As we found out today, the event begins and ends at the Marion Jones Sports Complex and will take runners across the city for some thirteen point one miles. Kaya Cattouse spoke to News Five today as both Councillor at the City Council and Sports Coordinator with the National Sports Council.
Kaya Cattouse
Kaya Cattouse, Councillor, Belize City Council
“This is something that happens in every big city that we know of. Bringing this to Belize is one of the best ideas that somebody brought it to me and said, Kaya this is something that happens everywhere, you are now in a position at the Belize City Council and the National Sports Council; let’s see how we can make this a reality. I think this first time we are doing it, the prizes are lucrative and this is the start so imagine where we will have it in the next couple of years. We have five water stations around the way for the athletes. At these stations, we will have Belize City councillors; they are handing our water, powerade, all provided by Bowen and Bowen.”
Duane Moody
“Who can participate?”
Kaya Cattouse
“Anybody can participate. We only have two categories and they are very vague – male and female – the prizes are equal for both male and female. It is a thousand dollars cash prize for both categories, first place. And we go ten deep; top ten prizes and it comes right down from one thousand all the way down to thirty dollars.”
Marvin Ottley
Marvin Ottley, Deputy Director, National Sports Council
“We are saying, we have been saying, myself, Kaya and the rest of the team, we have been saying we have to test our mantle and the only way to do it is to have a live event. And so actually the two five-mile runs were one of those. The Belize City Marathon is unique in the way it is designed, the route, because we don’t have to have crowds in one specific area because the marathon is going to touch every portion of the city.”
The event starts at six a.m. on Sunday, October twenty-fourth. Registration begins at five o’clock that morning – all participants must present a vaccination card, having received one or two jabs.
