Diacore Marathon, A Tough call For Locals
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday May 13, 2019 11:50
For many years, foreign runners have been winning the marathon. The trend continued yesterday at the 8th edition, which was won by Ramolefi Motsiela.
The Lesotho Nedbank running club member finished the race on a time of
02:16:43 followed by Kefas Kondijashili from Namibia with a time of
02:17:53. Mopenyane Lebelo from Mr Price running club in South Africa finished third on a time of 02:18:08.
The first Motswana to arrive at then finishing line was Godiraone Nthompe of Diacore Gaborone Marathon running club. He was in position nine with a time of 02:23:37. Thatayaone Kelapile of BDF was in position ten with a time of 02:23:37. Yet another another Namibian, Lavinia Haitope won the women’s race with a time of 02:41:02 followed by Olivia Chitate from Maxed Elite clocking 02:45:44. Amotoko Anna Naakalako also from Namibia was five seconds behind to capture the third position.
The first Motswana woman in the 42km was Ethel Sibanda in position six with a time of 03:14:20. Speaking to Sport Monitor after the race, the men’s champion, Motsiela said the race went according to plan.
“It is my third time running here and the last time I was here before today’s race was in
2013. The running course was good but along the way I decided to throw away my shoes because they were hurting me,” he said.
For his part, Kondjashili said he was making his debut at DGM and it was his second race in his life. He said it was not an easy one because it he had to compete with strong runners.
“I am not used to the weather and it was a bit tough to acclimatize. From 40km it started getting too hot. My aim in coming here was to run 2:16:00 which is the qualifying time for the World Championship but I missed it by a minute,” he said.
He disclosed that he trained for the marathon for three months but the winner was too strong. Nedbank running club runners claimed position one, two and three dominating the 21km men’s race. The winner, David Manja clocked 701:04:26, Misheck Sithole finished second with 01:04:37 and Tebogo Mathiba was third with a time of 01:04:48. Rapula Diphoko of DGM running club finished forth with a time of 01:05:16. The women’s race was scooped by Mokulubete Makatisi of Lesotho Nedbank club with a time of 01:18:35 followed by Namibian runner, Leena Ekandjo clocking 01:19:42. Another Nedbank runner, Netbaleng Letsela come third while Mema Thiango finished the race in fifth position bringing home a time of 01:24:19.