Fatboy Challenge back bigger and better

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday March 3, 2015 10:24

Botswana Public Officers’ Medical Aid Scheme (BPOMAS), in collaboration with Yarona FM, will this year host the North-versus-South Fat Boy Challenge in a brand new and improved format.

Addressing the media recently, BPOMAS Sales and Marketing Manager, Scelo Hlope, said the 90-day competition will be hosted in seven towns namely Gaborone, Palapye, Lobatse, Jwaneng, Orapa, Francistown and Mahalapye.

“This event will be slightly different from the previous one. We would like our competitors to challenge themselves to cut fat in their body,” he said.

He explained that they came up with the initiative a few years back after realising that most of the young people are into unhealthy lifestyles. He pointed out that non-communicable diseases like diabetes were killing people in numbers.

“HIV and opportunistic diseases have been killing people at an alarming rate but nowadays non-communicable diseases top the list.

“The challenge will now take place in seven towns simultaneously, as opposed to two as in the previous years, and participants will have to go through a 10-week training programme starting on March 2, 2015 in their respective towns,” he said.

He said the challenge will culminate in a grand finale at which the biggest losers, fittest and best performers of the challenge will be identified. He added that ultimately the challenge aims to promote a healthy living culture across communities and achieve tangible results for all participants.

Yarona FM station manager, David Moepeng said his radio station’s objective was to reach out to the youth.

He said they do not only focus on entertaining people with music, but have also established a few life changing campaigns such as “Smart Student” aimed at encouraging young people to live well, Fatboy Challenge and many more.

“In the past eight years we have been using celebrities in our event so that they could inspire their fans. We knew that when people, more especially the youth, see or hear how determined their favourite celebrities were to lose weight they will know that they also can do the same,” he said.

Ultimate Fitness instructor who will be training participants, China Mokaila said the event would be fruitful as it would have many exciting events such as running, yoga, aerobic and more.

“This event will be about fat loss not weight. As you heard its name, we want people to shed fat not lose weight. As we know, there are lot of obese people, so whoever we will assess and find that they have a lot of fat in their body, qualifies to enter the competition,” he said.

He added that they will have 210 participants, explaining that each town is expected to enroll 30 participants. He also added that there would be strict regulations in the competition where those who fail to comply will either be kicked out or punished.

The competition is scheduled to start on the third of March.