WHEN local NGO Grace Aid (part of the Grace Family Church uMhlanga) organised the 100m Barefoot World Record Challenge in April last year, their hope was to raise awareness on the plight of children living without shoes in disadvantaged communities. In the end they did more than that.
More than 1 000 pairs of shoes were donated to the cause which also coincided with the annual ‘One Day without Shoes’ campaign.
What’s more, Grace Aid are now the official Guinness World Record holders of the the ‘Largest barefoot race’ in the world. Not only did they beat the previous record by 614 but the runners and event organisers set a new benchmark that will be hard to beat. The previous record was held by 529 runners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2013 and Grace Aid had 1 143 people running 100m barefoot on Kings Park outer fields.
Grace Aid director, Dave Richter, said he was thrilled with the results.
“It’s absolutely awesome and it’s a fantastic reward for all of those who were involved. On the day there was definitely a feeling of togetherness, of making a difference but also having fun,” he enthused. “We received an email in August confirming we had broken the record, but we’ve been waiting for the official certificate which was posted to us, but because of the postal strike, we still haven’t received it yet.”
More than 1 000 pairs of shoes were donated to various charities including the Key Of Hope and CODAH (Children of Destiny at Home) in Hammarsdale.
“As a church, we had collected shoes previous to the barefoot challenge event for about three years. But nothing to match the amount of shoes donated on the day. Nearly every participant brought a pair of shoes for the event, which is just wonderful. When we delivered the shoes to the different charities, the children’s faces lit up. There’s nothing cooler than a new pair of shoes and their smiles certainly showed that,” he said.
“I’d like to thank all those who participated and who helped spread the word and make this event the success it was.” Richter said the church was planning another event for a similar cause this year. “Perhaps not a world record breaking,” he joked.
He described the background planning for the event as ‘monumental’.
“There was a lot of planning and requirements that needed to be fulfilled for this world record. For example, we had to have a federated sports referee from KZN Athletics, a lawyer, a notary, an auditor, a member of the SAPS in charge of special and major events, two qualified timekeepers from Cycling South Africa, and a number of stewards lining the course. We had to have an official land surveyor to mark out the 100m course.
“We had to have several cameras covering different angles of the run. We had a helicopter also covering the action and lastly every runner was fitted with an ankle chip to verify numbers at the end of race,” he said.
Check out our gallery of the ‘sole-ful’ event.
