20 Million Runners Join in Global Race on Behalf of Africa’s Hungry

A Sudanese runner lit a flame Sunday at the United Nations and dispatched 20 million runners in 78 countries on Sport Aid’s global “race against time” to raise $100 million for the hungry of Africa.

“It’s been a great day,” said Bob Geldof, the rock singer and driving force behind Sport Aid. “Certainly once again we’ve helped to keep thousands of people going.”

At 11 a.m. Sudanese distance runner Omar Khalifa lit the flame with the burning torch he has carried on a 12-nation odyssey since it was kindled at a refugee camp in his homeland to publicize the plight of the hungry, drought-stricken African continent.

It was a signal for the world to get on its feet and run to raise money for Africa’s hungry--7 million in Ethiopia and the Sundan alone, according to the United Nations.

Event Overshadowed

Although the worldwide sporting event to raise $100 million had its symbolic start in the United States, Sport Aid was overshadowed by the Hands Across America human chain designed to raise money for needy Americans, also staged on Sunday.

Organizers billed Sport Aid as the “the race against time” because of the precarious state of the hungry in drought-stricken Africa. The United Nations was chosen as the focus of the event because the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday begins its first-ever special session on Africa and its food crisis.

In 273 cities--from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to Wellington, New Zealand--athletes, politicians, pop stars and millions of ordinary people on five continents participated in simultaneous sponsored events in what Sport Aid described as “the world’s biggest sporting event.”

The money was to be raised through entry fees in some countries and pledges from sponsors and other contributors.

‘I Am Overwhelmed’

“I am overwhelmed at what’s happening,” Geldof told tens of thousands of people in London’s Hyde Park. “It’s one thing to ask people to watch a pop concert of stars. It’s another thing to ask people to get out and run 10 kilometers.”

“Let’s hope that tomorrow in the United Nations they pay attention to the blistered feet of 20 million people,” Geldof said.

In the African nation of Burkino Fasso, the entire cabinet was ordered to run. The Ivory Coast planned a dugout canoe race. In the central African nation of Chad it was too hot to run so Sport Aid organized a six-mile march instead.

In Australia, thousands of athletes set off at 2 a.m. In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher planned to review Israel’s race.

The Soviet Union was participating with races in Moscow, Gorky and Leningrad and about 10,000 were on the road in Budapest in the biggest race ever staged in Hungary.

Bangkok Started Early

In Bangkok, Sport Aid got under way early when Thailand’s prime minister led 20,000 on a marathon walk. More than 30,000 took part in races in 16 cities in India.

The biggest single run was in London, where 80,000 people signed up to participate in a six-mile trot through downtown. Sport Aid organizers had predicted up to 250,000 might turn up as “anyone can register on the spot and of course there will be thousands of spectators.”

In the crowd was Geldof, the inspiration behind Sport Aid who planned to accompany Khalifa in New York but bowed out at the last minute with tonsillitis.

It was Geldof who first tapped the power of pop culture to raise millions for famine relief with his Band Aid record for Ethiopia. Then he combined the power of pop music, television and credit-card cash to raise about $100 million more with the globally televised “Live Aid” concerts last summer.

Television also was part of Sport Aid with satellite coverage of races in 13 countries beamed to 50 countries and an estimated 700 million viewers. American networks, however, were concentrating on Hands Across America.