The 7th edition of the Diacore Gaborone Marathon took place on Sunday at the Grand palm Hotel. This time around there were a number of different categories to for athletes to participate in. The most intriguing race was the 42.2km marathon.
Many long distance runners took part in the 42.2km marathon due to the 1 million Pula (US$100. 000) prize tag.
The Diacore 42.2km record of 2hours and 17 minutes was clocked by Liyambo Paulus of the Namibian runners club. He won the P1 million prize.
Sibusiso Nzima of the Nedbank runners club in South Africa won the Diacore Gaborone Marathon in a seasonal best time of 2:16:57.Olivia Chitatate took the women’s title in a time of 2:51:35 .
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Our very own elite long distance runners did not disappoint as Mantshapelo Badummetse took second position in the female 42km race category while the famous Onneile Dintwe got position 4. Peter Medupe who ran in the 42km men veterans took position two placing Botswana in a better place.
“From the start of the race it was never easy and Nedback runners club were breathing on our necks.. With the previous races it was not this tough, the first 10 km was hard to complete but after that the race was smooth,” Rapula Diphoko who participated in 21kmcategory.
Thabo Makgato, Public Relations Officer for Diacore Gaborone Marathon noted that this year’s marathon was “amazing; adding that about 7 200 people registered and people did come.”
“Unfortunately no one managed to take the P1 million, but the time we set was very much achievable because the world time record is around 2 hours 02 minutes and we had hoped they would manage the time we set,” Makgato noted.
Adding that they are happy with the elite runners who came and took part, and that they managed to inspire them to take part and they hope that next year they will manage to reach the tag set for the grand price.
Both men and women of the 42km marathon 1st place were rewarded with P25 000, 2nd place got P15 000 while 3rd place bagged P10 000. For the 21km half marathon 1st place took P10 000, 2nd got P5 000 while 3rd place took P3 000. The 10km race 1st price was P5 000, 2nd bagged P3 000 and 3rd took home P2 000.