The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Zambia will hold an Olympic day fun run in Lusaka Saturday to commemorate the birth of the Olympic movement founded in 1894.

National Olympic Academy chairman Chenda Chilufya said in Kitwe, Copperbelt province that the celebrations would be held in Kitwe and Lusaka.

He said the Chinese embassy in the country has sponsored the event by sponsoring all the logistics needed for the event.

Chilufya said about 1,000 participants were expected to take part in the race with Lusaka and Kitwe likely to have 500 contestants in this event that aims at making people interact and share ideas about the movement.

He said the core values of the event are excellence, friendship and respect, adding that the Olympic movement was hinged on these three.

"By excellence we want people to excel in whatever undertaking they are doing, whether at a place of work by ensuring that they reach the highest point of excellence. We also want to create friendship so that people share ideas by interacting and respect to make people realize how important every person is," Chilufya said.

He said through having respect for one another, fair play and peace come into effect thereby creating an enabling environment where people can freely participate during the games.

Chilufya said the day run was open to all members of the public, non-governmental organisations, schools and the physically challenged and that there were no restrictions. He said the platform would also be used to share ideas about HIV/AIDS, malaria and many other issues affecting the everyday life.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2008)