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15 Mar 2023

Preparations for the 36th edition of the Orange Phikwe National Marathon are underway and it will be held in Selebi Phikwe on July 29.

Speaking during the national marathon’s press conference in Gaborone yesterday, Orange Botswana acting chief executive officer Maano Masisi said the marathon was one of the highly anticipated event in the country as it was also recognised by international bodies such as World Athletics and Confederation of African Athletics.

He added that it was also used as one of the qualifiers for major competitions.

He said Orange Botswana was happy with their collaboration with the organisers, which was on the sixth year and thanked Selebi Phikwe residents for their unwavering support.

“At Orange Botswana, we would like to believe that sport has a unique ability to unify people in a special way, people from different background, ethnicity and ages can all come around and enjoy different sporting code and hence you see our continued investment in different sporting codes,” he said.

Selebi Phikwe mayor Lucas Modimana said the event would be both competitive and recreational adding that they hoped to attract as many participants as possible.

“We need to have as many participants as possible so that we can then promote economic activity.

The economy in the town is depressed,” he said.

Meanwhile, the winner of the 42.2km race will pocket P25 000, while second and third positions winners will win  P15 000 and P10 500 respectively.

Fourth, fifth and sixth positions winners will get P7 500, P5 000 and P1 000.

As for the 21.1 kilometres race, the winner will take home P7 500 followed by second prize winner with P5 000 and third position winner with P3 500.

For the 10km race, the winner will win P5 000 while second and third prize winners will get P3 000 and P2 500 respectively. Ends