One thousand enthusiastic gogos took part in the fifth annual Gogolympics at the KwaNyuswa Sports Ground on Friday, 13 March, hosted by the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (HACT) in conjunction with the Department of Sport and Recreation and eThekwini Muncipality.
Each year the event gets bigger and better, and gives the gogos in the local rural community the chance to come together to celebrate community spirit and togetherness, and enjoy a good day of sporting events, food and refreshments.
Volunteers from Canada, sporting blue ”We love the Gogos’ shirts were also there in support of the gogos.
The day started off with singing, dancing, prayers and thanks given to the sponsors. The gogos enjoyed porridge from FutureLife, aQuellé water and goodies from Woolworths before getting down to the sporting events.
This year the event boasted two new sporting events, making up the seven events played this year, which included soccer, netball, the ‘duck walk’, ‘pass-the-ball’, ‘ring-the-stick’, ball-shooting and rugby ball throwing.
“This new line-up of sports was wonderful, as a lot more grannies could participate because the sports are not as intensive as soccer. My favourite new sport is definitely ball-pass,” said Sister Cwengi Myeni, HACT Granny Support Group Manager and Gogolympics co-founder and organiser.
The granny group from Dassenhoek won the soccer tournament, with Nyuswa taking second place. Dassenhoek also nabbed second place for netball, with Klaarwater taking home the netball trophy.
For the first time ever, mkhulus (granddads) participated in a soccer match, resulting in a draw between Nyuswa and Dassenhoek.
“It was inspiring to see granddads on the field for the first time, and the spectators and grannies cheered them on enthusiastically,” said Myeni.
Cwengi thanked the Department of Sports and Recreation, which donated R109 000 worth of sporting equipment to the project, as well as the eThekwini Municipality for their hard work and commitment to the project.
She also extended her extreme gratitude to the wonderful sponsors who joined in and took the community project under their wings. Sponsors included FutureLife, Woolworths branches in the upper Highway area, Solly-M Sports, Tiger Brands, aQuellé, the Checkers Soup Van and Hillcrest KwikSpar.
