Mmadinare marathon gets P112,000 Mascom boost
Onalenna Kelebeile | Wednesday December 13, 2017 15:05
The deal exceeds the P98,800 target that the race committee had intended to raise. Mascom has been sponsoring the marathon since 2015, but this year the company has also been granted the rights for the 10km race. The sponsorship was launched at the village Kgotla on Monday.
The sponsor will supply t-shirts, caps and take care of prize money. The sponsor has also introduced race placards for this year’s race so that the internationally recognised race meets the expected standards.
The marathon committee chairperson, Keineetse Maswabi said the marathon began in 1989. He is a former race participant and founder. It has been held annually since then and, in the past, runners used to get t-shirts as prizes, with companies such as Toyota and Nissan on board as sponsors. “We later on realised the importance of prize monies for athletes hence efforts were intensified to look for more sponsors. Last year, close to 300 athletes registered and participated in the race and through the Mascom sponsorship prize monies were introduced,” he said.
This year new races have been introduced such as sack race, bucket race, egg race, mhele and Humber bicycle race for the elderly, to complement the traditional 10km, 5km and 2km races. There will also be a category for people with disabilities. Maswabi said the inclusion of people with disabilities is to ensure that they are not sidelined in sporting activities. “They will also have their own set of prizes in order to attract many of them to participate. The race also promotes physical fitness. We want participants who will treat the annual race as a business and for the runners with disabilities to treat the race as a launching pad for them to qualify for internationally recognised races,” he said.
Maswabi said last year they managed to raise P78,600 for the race with Mascom providing P35,000, 500 t-shirts and 500 caps. The marathon committee this year also requested for sponsorship from several companies and individuals. Registration for the race, which has been attracting athletes from other countries, will commence next week.
Mascom public relations officer, Tirelo Kooagile said the telecom company is very passionate about sports development in the country and sponsoring sport activities is their way of ploughing back to the community that sustains the company. “Sports unite us as a nation and it is part of our corporate social responsibility strategy as evidenced by sporting activities that Mascom supports. We sponsored the recent netball tournament, basketball, boxing, motor sport, cycling and chess, whose sponsorship will be launched soon,” he said.
Kooagile said Mascom is impressed with the growth of the Mmadinare Christmas race and its administration by the committee. The race is not confined to the Mmadinare community only and aims to grow even more by introducing more categories.