Deputy Minister of Sports, Arts, Culture, and Recreation Nocawe Mafu launched the N12 Ultra Marathon in Klerksdorp, which will take place on Saturday and the 50 km race will start from Klerksdorp and end in Potchefstroom.
The Marathon has attracted more than 2000 athletes from around the world. Last year the race was won by an Ethiopian athlete and this year the department hopes a South African or possibly an athlete from the North West will take home the R10 000 first prize.
The N12 National Road between the two towns is said to provide the finest and most ideal road running experience, with a few turns in and around the cities to complete 50 kilometers.
Mafu said the event was one of a kind and he hoped that more people will come and support what she called the flagship project where the provincial government has invested R2.1 million in what is also an automatic Comrades Marathon qualifier.
Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation MEC Kenetswe Mosenogi said the department wants more athletes from the province to compete nationally and internationally.
She argued that the success of athletes like last year’s Comrade Marathon winnerTete Dithejane from Mahikeng, proved that the country’s efforts were worthwhile.
“We are producing athletes who achieve what Dithejane achieved, it tells you that we are hard at work and it shows that there are results in what we do otherwise if there is no one who makes it either in the major podiums of the Comrades or the Olympics then it means there is something wrong that we are doing as the government,” she said.
For more people like Dithejane to succeed, Mosenogi has proposed increasing funding for sports science intervention.
Veteran runner and 2012 Comrades Marathon winner Ludwick Mamabolo from Limpopo said he cannot wait to take part in the Marathon and to see what it has in store for him.
“I’m here in the Northwest for one reason and one reason only: to win this race with the years of experience I’ve accumulated,” he said.
