Half marathon to raise money for Halberg

Press Release: Harcourts

8 October 2013

It won’t be easy for all of them and there hasn’t been a great deal of training, but the team from Harcourts Johnsonville are determined to complete a half marathon on Tuesday[SUBS 15 October].

Come rain, hail or shine the group of 15 will be hitting the streets in one of the first fundraising activities planned across New Zealand by Harcourts as part of the inaugural ANZA Challenge.

Harcourts is the principal sponsor of the ANZA Challenge - a trans-Tasman sports race starting on Tuesday at 10am on the steps of Parliament.

Teams of sports stars and celebrities representing New Zealand and Australia will run, row, cycle and sail over 1300km around New Zealand during the course of a week.

As well as the fun of trans-Tasman rivalry, 100% of all money raised during the event goes to the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation - the charity dedicated to enabling physically disabled young New Zealanders to participate in sports.

Harcourts Johnsonville owners Glenys Naik, Paul Ellis and Andrew Duncan say their team will be leaving from their Johnsonville office at 9am on Tuesday morning, joining the celebrities for the 10am official start on the steps of Parliament, continuing on to watch a rowing challenge at Queen’s Wharf and then making their way to the airport to round off the half marathon.

They are being sponsored and will be collecting money on the way – 100% of which will go directly to the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation.

Glenys Naik says Halberg is a charity everyone can get behind.

“It’s a fantastic cause and we made a collective decision as an office to do this half marathon and raise as much money as we can. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, we’ll be out there with smiles on our faces.”

From Wellington the ANZA Challenge moves to Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, up to Hamilton and culminates in simultaneous public runs in Auckland and Sydney on Sunday 20 October.

Former All Black and broadcaster Marc Ellis leads the Harcourts New Zealand Team along with Black Sticks player Gemma Flynn, World Champion cyclist and netballer Alison Shanks, Olympic gold medal rower Nathan Cohen, Paralympic cyclist Nathan Smith, Paralympic rower Danny McBride and sports presenter James McOnie.

They are up against an elite team of Australians, including former rugby league player Wendell Sailor.

For more information go to www.anzachallenge.com

ENDS

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