New Zealand peace campaigner selected to run NY marathon for Peace-Sports

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SP1109/S00017/nz-peace-campaigner-to-run-ny-m arathon-for-peace-sports.htm

New Zealand peace campaigner Alyn Ware has been selected as one of the 20 runners from around the world - the only one from New Zealand - to join the Peace and Sport Team (L 'Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport) in the New York Marathon on 6 November 2011. The Team is being trained and led by three-time NY marathon champion Paula Radcliffe, along with Tegla Loroupe the first African woman to win the NY marathon and Wilson Kipketer the 800 metre world record holder for 13 years.

The Peace and Sport Team will be running to raise funds for sports programmes which bring together youth from civil conflicts in Africa, South America, South Asia, the Caribbean and the Middle East. The programs help disadvantaged communities and promote peace-building, conflict resolution and reconciliation from opposing sides through sport. The youth are inspired to participate through the involvement of Champions for Peace - top-level sports champions who donate their time freely to Peace and Sport. This is the first time Peace and Sport, under the High Patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco, will take part in a New York Marathon.

"I am running to raise funds for the Peace and Sport programme in Israel/Palestine ," says Mr Ware, a recent recipient of the Right Livelihood Award - otherwise known as the 'Alternate Nobel Peace Prize.' "It uses sport to break down the hatred, misunderstandings and fear many youth feel towards those on the other side of the conflict." Mr Ware has been active in youth conflict resolution programmes in New Zealand and overseas, including some involving Palestinian and Israeli youth.

In his position as Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament , Mr Ware has been invited to Jordan following the marathon to work with government officials, parliamentarians and disarmament experts from Israel, the Arab countries and Iran, on a proposal to establish the Middle East as a Zone Free of all Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Mr Ware has run the New York marathon once previously - as a fundraiser and promotion for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

For more information on Alyn Ware's NY marathon run: click here

Quotes from Peace and Sport Team Leaders:

"The New York marathon is a very special race for me'" says Ms Loroupe. "I owe it my best memories of being an athlete. What a pride and pleasure it will be to participate this year, whilst serving peace - a cause that I have passionately defended for many years!"

"It will be my first marathon and I'm very excited at the prospect," says Mr Kipketer. "I'll be running for Peace and Sport, an organization in which I've been involved since it was founded in 2007. It will be a great personal adventure which I hope will enable me to bring a smile to the faces of children who live in awful poverty.

"Since I have been a mother I am much more aware of the desperate situations that some children in the world live in and this deeply saddens me," says Ms Radcliffe. Sport is a simple, easy-to-implement way of giving landmarks in life to children who are left to their own devices and gives them values which can greatly enrich their lives. By supporting Peace and Sport's initiative, I hope to encourage raising funds which will be used to give a better life to hundreds of youngsters."

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