20,000 women to run for pleasure and AIDS awareness

On May 21st Casablanca will hold the 8th edition of an all women race "course féminine" expected to draw about 20,000 female runners.

The all women "La Parisienne" race is sending a delegation to Morocco to take part in the Casablanca competition.

Moroccan Olympic champion, Nawal El Moutawakel has been chosen to be the 2006 honor guest of La Parisienne, on the occasion of the celebration of its 10th anniversary (September 17).

The Casablanca sport event held under the theme "run for pleasure" is sponsored by the Moroccan Sports and Development Association (AMDS), headed by Nawal El Moutawakel.

The race, open for women of all ages, will be preceded on April 13 by the signing in Paris of a partnership convention between La Parisienne and "course feminine" in the presence of Paris mayor, Bertrand Delanoë and Casablanca Town Hall Council, Mohamed Sajid, La Parisienne organizer Patrick Aknane and Nawal El Moutawakel.

Organizers said the convention is meant to enhance the international dimension of the Casablanca women race through benefiting from La Parisienne experience, as well as to energize the twinning agreement between Paris and Casablanca.

The 8th edition of the Casablanca women race comes in the wake of the signing of a convention between the AMDS and the Moroccan Association for Fighting AIDS and will be the occasion to launch an awareness raising campaign on the pandemic.

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news