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Plans afoot to revive sport after lockdowns: ASA

Marathon
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Athletics South Africa says plans are afoot to use the Nedbank Runified Breaking Barriers 50km Ultra Marathon in Nelson Mandela Bay as a vehicle to revive the sport after the lockdowns. Over 200 top runners from around the world will participate in the marathon next month.

The race has been awarded elite label status by world athletics, which increases the prize money.

This year marks the second edition of the prestigious Ultra Marathon since the hard lockdown. Athletes have high expectations of the event.

Last year, two world records were broken in the male and female divisions.

South African runner Irvette Van Zyl holds the women’s record of three-hours, four minutes and 23 seconds while Ethiopian Ketema Negasa clocked two-hours, 43-minutes and six seconds, to break the 30 year old record held by Thompson Magawana.

“The race forms part of our strategy to revive athletics. Remember, we had lockdown regulation and we needed to think out of the box. As soon as the president announced Level 1, we knew we needed to be on the road again. So, the first edition went well, but we are more optimistic about this one. Athletics contributes immensely to tourism,” says James Moloi, President of Athletics South Africa.

“As a bank, we want to make a difference to a sporting code that we can invest on, hence we knew we did well last year under the difficult circumstance of COVID-19 regulations. The race has been well received. (It) only attracts international elite runners, hence it was easy to support Athletics South Africa to organise the race. As Nedbank, we pride ourselves as supporting any development on any sport,” says Nthabiseng Matshekga, Nedbank Head of Marketing.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has signed a contract to keep the race in Gqeberha until 2024. The city is no stranger to hosting world class sporting events.

“We have an obligation to support such international events. It does contribute towards tourism. It forms part of our strategy to build a sustainable city. Boosting sport tourism is high on our agenda,” says Bassie Kamana, MMC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation.

The new status of the race bumped up the prize money pot to over R1, 2 million. The male and female winner will each pocket R130 000, whilst there is a bonus of R150 000 for an athlete who breaks the 50km world record. The race will take place on the sixth of March.

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