NEW YEAR, MORE PARKRUNNERS

MBABANE – The first Parkrun of the year saw close to 100 runners shaking off the festive season fat in a 5km run around Mbabane Club Golf Course yesterday morning.

The run starts at 8am every Saturday at the Mbabane Club through to the golf course and back to starting point. Yesterday’s run was attended by 106 runners, including numerous first timers, visitors and regular runners of all ages. It usually lasts 30 minutes with all participants often clocking under this time.

The 87th parkrun was won by debutant Eswatini Umbutfo Defence Force (EUDF) athlete, Skhumbuzo Sihlongonyane, who clocked in 17:03 minutes ahead of Mduduzi Dlamini. The latter clocked 17:19 minutes while Musawenkhosi Mamba finished third. Mamba reached the winning point after 17:33 minutes.

At least nine male athletes completed the run within 20 minutes and making it to the top 10. Nobuhle Bhembe was the first lady and she finished in 24:23 minutes. Bhembe is a 22-year-old Doropeni High School student, who resides in Nhlangano and happens to be in the capital city for the holidays.

excited

“This is my second parkrun and I am excited to have improved my finishing time and I will definitely return when I am in town for the holidays,” said Bhembe.
She further encouraged other scholars to join the run over the holidays for its mind refreshing and health benefits. Other outstanding runners were eight-year-old Ryan Nowonaani, number 45 finisher who also completed the run in less than 45 minutes. Nompendulo Mndzebele, a lady cyclist from Velo Eswatini, committed herself to participating in every upcoming run for the whole of 2019.

“My new year’s resolution is to attend every Parkrun throughout the year and hope to see more cyclists following suit,” said Ndzebele.

registered

One of the event’s organisers and volunteer, Rhona, advised all runners to be registered members of the weekly run and also appealed to volunteers to assist them with organising the event since there were no permanent employees.
“I would like to make an emphasis on the importance of registering before the run because it makes it easy for us to record the runners’ finishing times and also add them in our data base and website,” she said.

This week’s volunteers were Franlkie Williams, Petros Nkomo, Karen Cooper, Lean Drinkwater, Chris Morgan, Nonhlanhla Makhanya, and Sandile Nkambule. Rhona also thanked other partners such as City Office Machines for supplying them with water and coffee.

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