23 Sep 2018

Kenyan athletes are the champions of this year’s Gaborone Mayor’s Marathon which was held on September 22.

Judas Maisei stole the show from Namibian Jeseja Matheus and local athlete, Rapula Diphoko in the men’s category.

It was clear that Maisei will win the race as he dictated the pace of the race stopping the clock with 02:21:38. Matheus recorded 02:21:40 while Diphoko settled for position three with a time of 02:21:40.

In the women’s category, Kenyan Monica Mengich, who won the Orange Phikwe National Marathon last month, proved that her win in Phikwe was not a fluke as she cruised to the finish line with a time of 02:57:41 followed by Mantshape Badumetse with 03:00:15 while another Kenyan settled for position three with 3:07:48.

Maisei said in an interview that he enjoyed the race as they were favoured by the cool morning temperatures.

He said he never anticipated tough competition as he had assumed that Batswana athletes were not fast.

“They gave me a lot of competition hence I decided at some point to layback and give them an opportunity to lead the race because I wanted to reserve energy for the finishing kilometres,” he said.

Diphoko said the race was tough and that competition was tight compared to other races he had been competing on.

He said his two competitors had picked the tempo of the race from the beginning, adding that they also gave him a tough race given that they worked and ganged against him.

“Honestly I never thought I will finish the race because I did not execute my race plan. My target was to pick the pace in the 30 kilometres, but it was very difficult to deal with them,” he said.

He, however said, he was happy that he managed to finish in the first three due to his fitness, adding that had he not fully prepared for the competition he could have failed.

Mengich said she enjoyed the race, adding that she came into the race to improve her performance.

She said the only setback was that her competitors did not give her the challenge she expected because most of the time they were trailing behind her.

Gaborone City Mayor, Kagiso Thutlwe said he was happy with the organisation of the second edition although there were challenges which included enough water for the competitors while on the other hand more sponsors also failed to come on board to support the marathon. Ends