Hundreds of participants gather at the Starting point to take part in the 2017 PnP Sosh Morula Marathon at Giants Stadium.

                      PnP Sosh Morula Marathon attracts thousands of runners

By Tebogo Senosha

The streets of Soshanguve came alive when approximately 5000 runners took part in the 2017 PnP Soshanguve in partnership with Setshaba Research Centre and Soshanguve Community Radio Station's fifth (5th) Annual Morula Marathon held at Giants Stadium recently.

Runners of different age, gender and race lined up at the starting points at Giants Stadium across the 5 Km, 10 Km and 21 Km races at 6h00 in the morning to take part in this year's marathon. The 5 Km race kicked off at 6h00, followed half an hour later by the start of the 10 Km at 6h30 and finally the main 21 Km race at 7h00.

The much anticipated 21 Km race kicked off, and there was no clear favourite after the halfway mark, as more than 10 men were in the chase all looking to clinch the R1000 prize money for that position one spot.

However Gino Nkoe broke away with less than 10 Km to go, leaving Sandile Skosana and Motsamai Rantho in his wake. The pair tried their best to catch up with him, but he powered through and crossed the line first becoming the 2017 5th Annual Morula Marathon 21 Km race champion and pocketed a prize cash of R1000 and a gold medal. Skosana came second and bagged a silver medal and R500 while Rantho won himself a bronze medal and R250 after finishing third respectively.

Former Soweto marathon winner and Athletics South Africa (ASA) runner, Michael Mazibuko, won himself a gold medal and a prize money of R600 after crossing the line first in the 10 Km race, and Bafana Dube finished second, winning a silver medal and R300 while Kenyan national, Paul Nyairo, finished third and won himself a bronze medal and R150 prize cash.

In the women's race, Glory Madivhadzi won herself a gold medal while Portia Nkwane bagged silver followed by Thando Dlamini with a bronze medal at third position.

Speaking after collecting his gold medal and the R1000 cash prize, the 2017 Morula Marathon 21 Km champion, Nkoe said that he was happy and proud of his achievement, calling it the best moment of his life.

"I trained very hard for this marathon, and I am happy that all the training paid off today. It was a very difficult race because we were running mostly on steep slopes but I just kept going", said Nkoe, adding that he will be shifting his sights to the upcoming marathons where he would be hoping to continue with his winning momentum.

While most ecstatic runners commended the organisers for a well-organised event, the 10 Km race champion, Michael Mazibuko, bemoaned traffic incidents which slowed down the runners near Mabopane station and suggested that there must be a complete road closure during the marathon in the future to prevent traffic from disturbing the races.

"It becomes frustrating for us runners when we have to slow down or make way for cars during the race. It also tempers with our concentration, hopefully next year they will block the roads completely so that we run freely," added Mazibuko.

One of the co-organisers of the marathon, Mrs. Mapule Raborife, acknowledged everybody for participating in a disciplined manner throughout the event and hailed the marathon as a huge success as compared to the previous marathons that they have hosted.

Raborife said, " The results of this year's marathon shows that we were highly rated by the referees compared to the previous events, and that is a huge achievement for us. We are now aiming to have a 42 Km race in the township which will be similar to the Soweto marathon".

She further explained that they will sit down as the committee and decide on which organisation they are going to help this year from the proceeds made during the marathon.

Last year's marathon proceeds were used to buy school uniform for the children of Boepathutse Secondary School in Ward 88.