The 2014 Kumba Marakele Marathon sees vast increase in entrants and prize money
05 March, 2014
Now in its 5th consecutive year, The Kumba Marakele Marathon has once again proven to be a crowd puller, with a total of 676 entrants taking part in the event, a vast improvement from the almost 242 from last year. The Kumba Marakele Marathon was held at the Marakele National Park in Thabazimbi, Limpopo this weekend and was presented as a partnership between Anglo American business unit, Kumba Iron Ore and the South African National Parks (SANParks).
The race was unique from other marathons owing to the fact that runners had the opportunity to run inside the national park. The Thabazimbi Marathon Club and the SANParks Honorary Rangers hosted the marathon which was also an official qualifying event for the Comrades Ultra-marathon.
The male and female winners of the day were Rufus Photo and Catherine Malungane who took part in the 42km marathon. The top male and female winners on the 21km race were Mandiwana Ndofhiwa and Tisetso Ramo. Godfrey Malape and Sonette Eybers took home first place in the 10km race. All the winners walked away with a portion of the overall prize money of R50 000.
The Kumba Marakele Marathon ambassador, Solly Mathiba, who is also a contestant on Survivor SA 2014, was also present and ran the 5km race together with many of the day’s youngest participants.
Divhani Maremba, Regional Communications Manager at SANParks notes that the marathon was a success. “SANParks is very privileged to be associated with the Kumba Marakele marathon as this is an opportunity to expose runners towards conservation activities in the park. Running in a park which is home to Africa’s big five is an awesome experience and we hope more and more people will enter this marathon in the future.”
Norman Mbazima, chief executive of Kumba, says that the company is proud to have been a part of this initiative.
“Kumba remains committed to supporting events and initiatives that make a lasting difference in communities associated with our operations. That is why we are proud to have been able to support this unique event, bringing together the people of Thabazimbi, the sporting community and being able to highlight the conservation activities of the Marakele National Park. We would like to congratulate everyone that participated and look forward to seeing them participating again next year.”