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| Hundreds of gay runners and walkers filled the 3.1-mile course of the Front Runners Pride Run/Walk in Grant Park on June 23. (Photo courtesy Front Runners Atlanta) |
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HOME > COMMUNITY > SPORTS
By: MATTHEW HENNIE
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There’s more to pride than the entertainment, political speeches and vendor booths.
Just ask the hundreds of gay athletes who swarmed three sports events last Saturday, running, putting and scrumming their way through a weekend known more for a parade and stage acts than for sports.
By far the largest sporting event of Pride Weekend is the Front Runners Pride Run/Walk, which has attracted participants for 17 years. Some 500 runners and walkers, who ranged in age from 17 to 72, made their way through the hilly 3.1-mile course through Grant Park.
“We’ve kind of streamlined the event and try to have fun,” said Mike Spencer, the event’s sponsorship director and a former Front Runners Atlanta president. “It is such a different crowd than you see at other Pride events. You see people just having fun and doing something healthy and enjoying it.”
With a time of 16:46, Ben Clark was the male overall winner. Kim Feather took the female overall crown with a time of 19:40. In the 40 and over division, the top finishers were Mark Woommavovan (19:43) and Connie Robertson (20:30).
The event, which has raised more than $140,000 for charities since its inception, selected YouthPride, an organization for gay youth, and the Living Room, an Atlanta nonprofit that assists homeless people with HIV/AIDS, as beneficiaries this year. Organizers, still tallying the final numbers this week, were unable to say how much the event raised for the two groups.
Just a few miles away, eight downsized rugby teams were taking part in the Southern Fried 7’s Rugby Tournament, a first-of-its-kind event organized by the Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club.
The women’s division consisted of four high school teams — three from Georgia and one from South Carolina — while the men’s side included two teams from Atlanta and one each from North Carolina and Tennessee. The Campbell High School team won the women’s division, while Team Sanchez took the men’s title.
“The tournament really went a lot more smoothly than we anticipated,” said David Reeves, the Bucks' president.
Also on Saturday, lesbian golfers — with a few men mixed in for the first time — gathered in Southwest Atlanta for the Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus 4th Annual Best Ball Tournament. Organizers expected about 50 participants, but last-minute registrants soared this year and the event attracted its largest field yet — 68 players.
The boost in participants also helped with fundraising. Proceeds from the event will support operating expenses of the 30-member chorus and a trip to Miami next year for the Gay & Lesbian Association of Choruses festival.
Though final numbers are yet to be complete, an estimated $2,000 was raised through the tournament, according to Eileen Stone, the event’s chair and a past president of the chorus.
“It’s the best tournament we’ve had,” Stone said.
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