ORGANISERS of the PPC Matopos 33-miler (53km) ultra-marathon, the Bulawayo Athletics Board (BAB), are expecting more than 3 700 athletes to take part in this year’s edition tomorrow.
BAB chairperson Watson Wadenyika yesterday said the registration process has been hectic in the past week and by Wednesday over 1 500 athletes had enlisted for the marathon which also encompasses the 21km half marathon, the 10km and 5km races.
The race was last held in 2019 and was iced due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and resume this year, getting bigger and better with the sponsorship package at US$34 000 of which US$9 000 is directed to the wheelchair category.
“Athletes have been registering and are busy now collecting the race packs and we continue with the registrations for the three top races up to tomorrow (today) at 5 pm. For the 5km race we go until Saturday morning,” he said.
“If you look at this year’s race it has become bigger with the winners of the 53km race getting US$2 000 each for both the male and female categories. In the last race, only positions one to seven were rewarded and this time around they have prize monies for positions one to 10.”
By yesterday, organisers had not yet decided the individual prizes for the wheelchair category.
There will be a bit of foreign flavour, though limited.
“The wheelchair category has this year attracted US$9 000 but we are still working on the individual prizes. The only blow to this year’s race is that we will have few foreign athletes maybe because it stopped four years ago and the athletes had not prepared for it, but overall it has been overwhelming with the locals. We are expecting three athletes from Zambia and a club from Botswana has also indicated that they are coming but did not state the number of athletes they are bringing.”
- Bumper line up for PPC Matopos marathon
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Registration for the ultra-marathon is US$20 and for the other three categories is US$10.
Black Rhinos long-distance runner Andrew Chimbidzikai won the 2019 ultra marathon in the men’s category in 3:12:37 and collected ZWL$3 000. He, however, failed to beat his 2018 record of 3:12:23 where he also won the race.
Chiedza Chokore of Mr Pace won the women’s 33-miler in 3:57:17 beating her record of 4:09:10 set in 2018 and she also got ZWL$3 000 for her effort.
