Mbombela’s running community takes to urban challenge with zeal
This road race is a change of scenery for the city's runners, and this first one was already a big success.
The newly formed Uniwisp Running Club (URC) hosted its first Uniwisp 3-in-1 Urban Challenge road race on March 4.
This race was a change of scenery for the running community in Mbombela, with the routes not taking on the traditional form of starting from the outskirts of the city and running towards it. “We wanted to create a unique experience for runners going through the urban area of Nelspruit, passing some of our iconic landmarks,” Marius Botha, one of the race organisers, said.
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The club, therefore, decided to create a unique race, starting at the Nelspruit Rugby Club. The runners passed through the Riverside Business Complex and other iconic buildings like the Government Complex and its unique parabolic dome-shaped chamber, and also underneath the Nelson Mandela Statue, crossing the Crocodile and Nels rivers en route.
The race took the runners around Mbombela Stadium and finished back at the Nelspruit Rugby Club.
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Because of its nature, the organisers needed to take various safety aspects into account for the race. “Being an urban challenge meant we needed to cross various intersections and run on mainline roads like the R40. Runner safety was our main concern. Our team consisted of 36 marshals, 16 traffic officials from the Mbombela Traffic Department and two Hi-Tech ambulance vehicles,” Botha said.
Six race referees were also on duty on the course.
Although this was the maiden challenge, Botha said the race was well attended by local runners and even some elite athletes from other African countries like Kenya, eSwatini and Zimbabwe. Close to 500 entries were received.
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Botha said all the athletes had positive things to say about the first Uniwisp 3-in-1 Urban Challenge. “This race will be fixed on the running calendar and we are already looking forward organising next year’s event,” he said.
The total prize money of R52 000 was divided among all the age categories, with equal prize money going to the winners in both the men’s and women’s categories.
The event was sponsored by Uniwisp, Hoka, De Goede Finance, iHappifyFibre, Mugg & Bean, i’langa Mall and Coca-Cola.
