Thaba hosts thrilling sport festival

For the love of sport, the public gathered for The Thaba Festival of Sport.

The event was a celebration of the sporting facilities that the Thaba Eco Lifestyle Sports Centre offered, not only to the residents of the Thaba Eco Village but also to the public who can also use the facilities.

The goal was to showcase the offering of the variety of sports available, with new hiking, walking, running and MTB trails, with a variety of wild animals from zebra, wildebeest, springbok, gemsbok and impala to view during your activities; the 6v6 soccer courts, 3v3 half-court basketball, a skate and BMX park and six padel courts, two of which are covered.

The festival included a sports event at all the different sporting facilities. It offered opportunities for participants of all ages and saw around 2 000 participants across the weekend, with around a further 1 000 spectators in attendance.

One of the many highlights included having two South African Olympians, Dallas Oberholzer (skateboarding) and Vincent Leygonie (BMX) and Givemore Mudzinganyama, a previous Two Oceans winner and this year’s 10th finisher at Comrades Marathon.

The event could not continue without the hard work and support of the event partners such as Puma, Garmin, Sunbet, aQuelle, 32Gi and Thaba Eco Hotel.

The idea for the festival came about when the Wild Joburg Trail Run was scheduled for July 13, a bike race was also requested for the same weekend, along with a padel tournament. The Balwin team decided to incorporate all the sports on offer to create a festival and bring the sports centre to life.

The event showcased the facilities available in the south of Johannesburg and encouraged the surrounding community to participate and utilise the facilities that Balwin Properties has developed for the public.

The festival aimed to showcase the facilities on offer in the south of Johannesburg.

Ryan Kalk, co-managing director of Balwin Foundation, emphasised: “Balwin Properties is above all a property developer and this event served as an opportunity to showcase the apartments the company is developing for the residents in the south of Joburg.

Additionally, the event saw the launch of the new Eco brand and new show apartment. We encouraged the participants and spectators to visit the show apartment with the opportunity to win fantastic prizes from various partners.”

This inaugural event was a resounding success and allowed Balwin to showcase their first Lifestyle Centre external to the residential estate, whereby the residents are automatically members of the facilities, enabling them preferential rates on the sports facilities and access to the exclusive gym and swimming pool.

The memberships are also available to the public, at a fee, and this new model has been extremely successful for Balwin.

“The drive of Balwin Sport is to promote a healthy and sustainable lifestyle for our residents, clients and staff and an event of this nature serves these objectives positively.

“We are always inspired by the words of the late Nelson Mandela, who said: ‘Sport has the power to change the world, it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does’. With this in mind, we will strive to continue offering these events to our residents, clients, staff and the community,” added Kalk.