GABORONE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- In an effort to promote sport and a healthy lifestyle among the residents of his city, Gaborone Mayor organized an inaugural marathon for the city on Saturday morning, pulling a crowd of over 2,000 runners.
Dubbed Gaborone Mayor's marathon, the event was deemed a big success by the runners and the organizers who expressed optimism that it will grow to become one of the popular marathon events in the southern Africa region.
The marathon, which started and ended at the National stadium in Gaborone, had three categories being 10km, 21km half marathon and the main event of 42km.
It took the runners through some of the city's major landmarks like the central business district.
Most fitness enthusiasts entered for the 10km marathon which pulled the largest crowd of runners while competitive runners were in the 21km and 42 km races.
Local runners Dikgakgamatso Modisagape and Onneile Dintwe emerged victorious in the men and women categories of the main event respectively, bagging a prize money of 50,000 Pula (5,000 U.S. dallars).
Speaking to Xinhua at the event, Gaborone Mayor Kagiso Thutwe said he believed the inaugural marathon has set a platform for an even bigger event next year and he expected the marathon to be a big crowd puller in years to come.
The youthful mayor said every city around the world has key events as its identity and he expected the marathon to be one of Gaborone's landmark sport events.
He thanked the runners and the sponsors for making the marathon a success.
For his part, Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) spokesperson Ipolokeng Ramatshaba said as the country's athletics governing body, they are excited to help the marathon grow and he hoped it will in the future attract runners from all over the world to compete in Botswana.
