Tiango, Nthomphe win Palapye Half Marathon
Bonte Seepi | Wednesday May 3, 2017 15:29
In the men’s 21.1km, Godiraone Nthomphe of SSKB club became the champion and completed the race in 1:08:21 (68 minutes), only 10 minutes away from breaking the international 58 minutes record.
In second place was Lebogang Medupi, who also runs for SSKB athletics club. In the women’s category, Tiango Meme Tiango who also runs for the SSKB athletics club emerged the champion, completing the race in one hour and 26 minutes followed by Kefilwe Keleetile.
In the women’s 10km race, Wame Nare from Bobonong was named the champion and completed the race in 35 minutes and 30 seconds followed by Kealeboga Bololo. Mphoyamodimo Kekganetswe emerged the men’s champion finishing his race in 30 minutes and 14 seconds. Bolokang Morake came second.
The event, organised by Central Sports Centre in conjunction with Palapye athletics attracted over 250 athletes. The races included 21.1km, 10km and the 4km fun race. Other important activities included voluntary testing for HIV/AIDS, blood pressure, weight, diabetes as well as free aerobics.
In an interview with Mmegi Sport, the race champion Nthomphe who won himself P4,000 said the main reason for participating in the race was to check his fitness level before going for Diacore marathon on the sixth. “I am happy for the time I recorded. It shows improvement from the race I participated on, in the last two weeks,” he said.
Tiango also shared the same sentiments saying she was also warming up for the Diacore marathon.
“This was sort of training for me because my main race is on Sunday at the Diacore. However, I am happy for the time I recorded,” she said.
Both athletes are sponsored by the Diacore Marathon. Stanbic Bank Botswana branch manager (Palapye), Tsholofelo Borakanelo applauded the winners and the marathon participants saying the race was not just for fun but also for fitness. She encouraged the youth to always take part in such races.
For his part the race coordinator, Moagi Rahube said he was impressed with the number of people who turned up for the event. He said 250 was a good number for the start saying that they expect a higher number next year.
“I am impressed with the number, 250 is good regarding that this was the first event of its kind around here. The main purpose of the race was to explore talent and to improve the quality of life amongst the communities of the central region by advocating for fitness (that is why there were free aerobics), healthy living, drugs and alcohol abuse awareness, social responsibility and retirement.
We also wished to have a champion out of this race, unfortunately our champion managed to do 68 minutes which means he was basically 10 minutes away from breaking the record,” Rahube said.
He however said they intend to make the event annual though they are still lacking sponsors and officials.
He added that he was very impressed by the junior category runners who participated saying that is a clear indication that in the coming years central region will produce stars. According to Rahube, the race also attracted over 30 international runners from Germany, Italy, USA, UK and Ethiopia.