Ulinda Athletics club hosted the KwaThema Street Mile last Sunday morning at KwaThema Stadium.
“The concept of a street mile in South Africa came about due to the shortage of athletes doing 800m and 1500m in the track and field events.
As a result, it was used by clubs as a talent identification and scouting event to fill this gap,” explains Madala Nkuna, chairperson of Ulinda Athletics.
The city of Ekurhuleni has partnered with four clubs, namely Ubuhle Athletics Club, Daveyton Hearts, Ulinda Athletics and Thembisa Athletics Club to participate in the street mile series of races.
The final race will be hosted by Thembisa Athletics Club on the 29th of October.
Anel Oosthuizen who represented South Africa in the women’s 20km race walk event at the 2016 Olympics, took gold in the walking event.
She also recorded her personal best time in the process.
Anel walked her way to a new South African record of 1:34:49 early last year.
She also crashed the Olympic Games qualifying mark of 1:36 by more than a minute.
The men’s open walker’s mile race was won by Lebogang Shange who took control at the halfway mark and went on to claim gold at the finish line. Lebogang represented team SA at the IAAF (International Associate of Athletics Federation) World Championships held in London recently and finished fourth in the 20km race walking event.
Lisu Nyathi (9) one of Ulinda Athletics’ development athletes was recently selected to represent Central Gauteng Athletics at the Race Walking Championships to be held in George, Cape Town on 21st of October.
“We as a club are very pleased and humbled to stage such events and to have top talent coming to our back yard to compete with and inspire our athletes.
We would like to call upon the business community to partner with us through sponsorship and help develop our young and talented athletes in our community to achieve their full potential and compete at the international stage,” says Nkuna.
He says he is hopeful the metro will refurbish the stadium soon.
“We do not have all the facilities we need in order to train these children in different sporting codes.”
Website: www.ulindaathletics.co.za
