The second edition of the University of Botswana Marathon was dominated by Kenyans. Of the top three positions both in men and women, 5 Kenyans finished in the podium.
Sheila Saina of Kenya successfully defended her championship title in the second edition of the annual UB marathon over the weekend. Saina finished the 42.2km marathon in 02:54:05. She attributed her achievement to hard work.
Her Kenyan colleagues Monica Mengich and Rebecca Nakuwa finished second and third, completing a Kenyan sweep of the top three positions.
The winners are now awaiting doping results before they can be awarded their prize monies.
Another Kenyan, Lazarus Too, finished first in the men’s division of the marathon with a time of 02:21:50. Botswana’s Kabo Jenamo came second and Kenyan Jackson Ole Koisengwe came third.
For the half marathon in the women’s category, the winner of the 21.1km long distance race, Patience Garauzive became the champion while Ketsiso Joseph and Kefilwe Galeitsewe finished second and third, respectively. Sesebo Matlapeng, Bakang Matlho, and Tlhologe Keitshekile, their male counterparts, arrived in the identical order to finish on the podium.
The marathon was hailed a success by the organizers. “It was a huge success looking at the number that ran on the day and finished. A total of 2284 finished their races on the day,” said Boitumelo Molefe of UB foundation.
Molefe said they received positive feedback from the runners and they were happy that the water points were enough and well supplied. “The only hiccup on the day was that the participants did not receive medals for taking part in the marathon because they arrived late on the day. All participants and winners can come to UB foundation office to collect their medals. For corporate medals we will deliver them,” explained Molefe.
One of the objectives of the marathon was to fight the scourge of the non-communicable diseases.
