How race organiser pushed ahead

Raymond Jaravaza

THE race organiser — Moses Maguchu — who was arrested by police on fraud charges last week for defrauding more than 150 long distance runners in Mutare went ahead with the race with full knowledge that there were no prize monies for the marathon, B-Metro Sport has been told.

Last week, we reported how Maguchu spent a night in the Mutare Central Police station cells after he was arrested for defrauding    athletes who had registered to take part in the Christmas Pass Vumba Half-Marathon.  

The marathon had initially been scheduled for September last year but was postponed to November for unexplained reasons. 

The race was again postponed to 11 February 2023, forcing some fed up athletes to demand refunds of their US$10 registration fees. 

Maguchu is accused by the aggrieved athletes of sending out a revised flier that explicitly stated that the organisers of the race were not obliged to refund registration fees and slashing prize monies for the winners, raising the ire of the athletes.

Of the more than 150 athletes that registered to take part in the race, more than half pulled out and insisted on refunds while others chose to go ahead and participate in the 21-kilometre and 10-kilometre events. 

Little did the participating athletes know that there were no prize monies at all, B-Metro Sport was briefed. 

“The organisers insisted to us that there were athletes who wanted the race to go ahead as planned, which led to the competition being held on the 11th of February despite the reduction in prize monies.

“We were later informed by the athletes who took part in the race that the winners did not get prize monies at the conclusion of the marathon so we resorted to taking up the issue with the police. 

“The complainants in this case were the athletes who took part in the race and didn’t receive prize monies together with those who refused to take part and were demanding refunds of their registration fees. 

“Mr Maguchu was arrested and the case is now in the courts,” said Athletics Commission chairman Dickson Kamungeremu. 

The race had been organised under the Cheetahs Athletics Club banner. The Manicaland Athletics Board (MAB), the athletics administrative body at provincial level, confirmed that Cheetahs Athletics Club is their affiliate, but the board was not represented during the event.

“We know Cheetahs Athletics Club as our affiliate, but during this particular event we were not represented. We are also investigating what really went wrong,” said MAB chairman, Joshua Matume.