Charities benefit from Urban Run

THOUSANDS flocked to the Port Elizabeth city centre at the weekend to witness the third annual Nelson Mandela Bay Urban Run, a 10km untimed obstacle course through the city hosted by the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) and supported by firms that sponsored the various obstacles and water points.

Urban athletes of all shapes and sizes took to the streets to "Tackle the City" as they climbed, crawled, ran and jumped their way through no fewer than 20 obstacles, stairs, historic landmarks and roads.

"Thank you all for your support of the Urban Run," MBDA marketing and communications head Luvuyo Bangazi said at the prizegiving ceremony on Sunday.

"Well done to Michael Zoetmulder and his team from Zports."

The ultimate winners of the event were without a doubt the nominated charities of Khaya Cheshire, an outreach project of Summerstrand Cheshire Homes for (mentally and physically) disabled children and youngsters living in Walmer township, and Cleft Friends, a project of the Smile Foundation, founded in the Eastern Cape in 2009 by Helena Cullis, offering support for parents and medical professionals dealing with babies born with cleft palates.

The 2013 Urban Run, through the support of all the participants, raised just over R225000 for charity, with more than R10000 being raised for the Scouts of Nelson Mandela Bay by the Kids' Urban Run, which took place on Saturday afternoon.

In the spirit of the Urban Run many participants dressed up, vying for The Herald Best Dressed trophies – up for grabs for the best-dressed pair and best-dressed group as voted by the participants.

Dylan Benyon and Jeremy Dobbin were the best-dressed pair in their outstanding Lego outfits, while the Ninja Turtles – Ashley Nel, Lindy Nel, Andrew Whitewood and Kathleen Soper – took the best-dressed group award.

Pictures from the weekend events taken by Sports Action Photography are available on Urban Run Facebook page: www.facebook.com/urbanrun