Ninth Navachab Half Marathon launched

The ninth edition of the Navachab Half Marathon will be held at Karibib on Saturday morning, starting at 07h00.

At the launch of the event yesterday, organiser Bethold Karumendu said that the 21,1km half marathon and a 5km race will take place as usual, while an extra race over 10km will also be held for the first time. 

He added that the main sponsor Navachab Gold Mine had increased the total prize money for this year’s event to N$158 000. The male and female winners of the half marathon will each receive N$10 000, while the 10km winners will each receive N$5 000.

“Last year we had more than 600 participants and we hope to improve on that this year,” he said. 

“The ministry of sport is assisting with transport from the regions – they have availed seven busses which will come from the regions, so athletes need to contact the ministry’s sport officers in their regions to get travel arrangements,” he said. 

Karumenu said that registration can be done online till Thursday evening, and manually on Friday till 19h00. No registrations will be allowed on the day of the race. 

The 21,1km half marathon will start at 07h00 on Saturday, with the 10km race starting at 07h15 and the 5km race at 07h30. 

The PRO of Navachab Gold Mine McLyn Kasale said they decided to introduce the 10km event so that no one would be left out. 

“At the beginning of this year we decided to review the road race and because the theme of this year’s race is ‘no one should be left out,’ we decided to add a10km race as well. In the past a lot of people said they cannot do the half marathon, but the 5km race is a bit too short, so that’s why we introduced the 10km race so that we will be able to cater for everyone,” he said. 

“The online registration will close on Thursday night – in the past we used to extend it, but the administration became a nightmare, so that’s why we said this particular one will only go on till 19h00 on Friday. We also want to make sure that everyone collects their race packs on Friday afternoon – the packs will be available from 14h00 on Friday,” he said.

“The town is ready, we have very little accommodation facilities, but we are inviting everyone to come. There will also be vendors selling food and beverages and other items so bring some money along and support the local entrepreneurs,” he added.

The chief administrator of the Namibia Sport Commission, Freddy Mwiya said that mass participation was very important for the development of sport. 

“Mass participation is the responsibility of the ministry and it helps us to grow sport in the country. Athletics Namibia needs to tap into the mass participation programme that is organised by the ministry,” he said.

He commended Karumendu for his hard work and thanked all the sponsors.

“It’s not easy to arrange an event of this magnitude, especially in this economic climate that we find ourselvesin, but you can only achieve this if you have got stakeholders on board. So I want to thank the main sponsor Navachab and all the secondary sponsors for their contributions,” he said. 

More information can be obtained from Karumendu at cell number 081 3118489.