HCT Marathon on Dec 10
MBABANE – Athletics Eswatini (AE) has partnered with Mankayane - based church Highway Covenant Tabernacle (HCT) church for a half marathon to be held next month.
The half marathon which was launched at Equinox Restaurant in Mbabane yesterday is billed for the Mankayane Sports Ground on December 10, 2022, starting at 6am.
The event was graced by the presence of AE President, Zakhele Dlamini, Public Relations Officer (PRO) Victor ‘Mavikane’ Dlamini, Chief Operations Officer (COO) Thoba Mazibuko, Eswatini Sport and Recreational Council (ESRC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Darius Dlomo, Eswatini Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (EOCGA) CEO Maxwell Jele and HCT Pastor Sabelo Khumalo, among other dignitaries.
Making his remarks, Khumalo said the Mankayane half marathon was a historic event from his church.
Acknowledge
“I would like to acknowledge Athletics Eswatini for choosing to partner with us in this very historical event that we are going to be having in Mankayane,” Khumalo said.
He said as a church they decided to go where the people were, saying they did not believe only in spiritual fitness, but also in physical fitness.
“There is an old man in the Bible by the name of Paul speaking to a young man called Timothy, saying that physical training is good, but training on Godliness is much better,” he said.
The man of the cloth went on to say that it showed that Paul also created time to train as he would not have referred Timothy to exercise.
He also said the reason for staging this half marathon was to curb non-communicable diseases (NCD), which were caused by lack of exercise, among other things.
“These diseases are not caused by demons but caused by the negligence of the biological container,” he said.
Referred
Khumalo said now that they were educated as pastors, if someone came to them to be prayed for, for the NCD, they referred that person to training.
He further said training also helped to reduce stress and it would also assist them as pastors to have a reduced number of people seeking prayers for NCDs.
He finally invited all emaSwati, his church members as well as other sports personalities to cascade to Mankayane Sports Ground on December 10, 2022 for the race.
Meanwhile, AE COO Mazibuko then laid down the logistics of the event, revealing that it would be categorised into three. On top of the half marathon, there would be 5km and 10km events.
“These races will all start at Mankayane Sports Ground and take the route to Sicunusa Border Gate. I must say that this is a good route as there will be water points along it,” Mazibuko said.
Interested
He said those interested in being a part of the event would have to pay E70 to register for each of the three categories.
“The registration centres are the HCT which is opposite Mankayane High School; the OlympAfrica at Lobamb; as well as at Sport Council offices,” he said.
He finally invited clubs as well as groups to register for the half marathon and assured them that safety measures would be taken care of.