Local athletes deliver at Sports View meet
Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday May 26, 2015 12:06
The tournament was used as a qualifier for the Southern Region Senior Champs, All Africa Games and World Champs respectively.
Local stars, Nijel Amos, Baboloki Thebe, Karabo Sibanda, Leungo Matlhaku and Tsaone Sebele won their respective races.
Thebe won the men 100m and 200m races by recording times of 10: 29 and 20:59 respectively.
Another runner who was on top form, Sebele won the women 100m and 200m races with a time of 11:66 and 23: 86 respectively.
The BNSC sportsperson of the year Amos also performed as expected by winning the 800m race with a time of 45: 81 ahead of Sibanda and Zachariah Kamberuka.
For a tournament that was expected to attract a kaleidoscope of international athletes, the chairman of Sports View California Molefe said only four athletes came from Namibia while 10 athletes represented Zimbabwe. He said they had other challenges with athletes from Ethiopia and South Africa.
“We always want to involve foreign athletes in this international event because we encourage tough competition so that our local athletes can deliver their best performance,” explained Molefe.
He hailed the wonderful support from Khayelihle guesthouse and Brands Limited.
“We have grown a lot because of the sponsorship increase and we also believe that our event became successful because of all the support,” he said.
Molefe added that the event saw young athletes like Thebe and Sebele bring out their best.
He said apart from the sponsorship, the fourth edition showed a huge growth in terms of support from other stakeholders.
However, he cleared a complaint about the lack of prize money in the women’s 400m event.
“It was a promotional race and the athletes knew beforehand that there was going to be no prize money,” he explained. Molefe concluded that they would improve the meet for the better next year and he hoped for a good turnout of athletes from other countries.