Marathon organisers owe athletes
Organisers of the Orapa Half Marathon and Gubungano Marathon have failed to pay athletes who participated in the two road races.
Orapa Half Marathon has so far paid P4, 000 each to three local athletes while foreign athletes have not received anything. The marathon’s best local athlete was due to receive P25,000, while the senior category winner was to get P20, 000. The Masters’ section winner had a reward of P15, 000 for the winner.
The 10km race had a prize tag of P20, 000 for the best local athlete and P15, 000 for the senior athlete. There were other prize monies for other categories. Veteran marathon runner, Onneile Dintwe told MmegiSport that while the race was held in November, they were promised payments in January, which was postponed to February but nothing happened.
“This is the same thing that happened to us during the Gaborone Mayor’s Marathon. I started to doubt the Orapa Half Marathon when they started making some changes to the prize money. It got worse after the event when they could not give us our money. The situation was confusing and we did not even know who to talk to,” she said.
Dintwe said as per the categories in place, she is owed P25, 000, P15, 000 for second place as a local runner and P10, 000 for finishing in second position in the Masters’ category.
She said they tried to seek redress from the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) but the association failed them. Dintwe said she refused to accept the P4, 000 payment because she felt undermined by the organisers. Another runner, Sesebo Matlapeng said he accepted the P4, 000 because he had no choice. He said back in 2016, another Orapa marathon did not pay him, so this time around he did not want to lose again.
Regarding the Gubungano Marathon, Matlapeng said the organisers are no longer picking up their calls. Dintwe said the organisers of Gubungano decided to disqualify foreign athletes because they did not have a clearance letter from their associations. She said it was surprising because they never requested the athletes to bring the letters before the race.
As for Gubungano, they reportedly did not pay anything to the athletes. The winner of the senior category for both men and women was to pocket P35, 000 and there was also prize money for 21.1km and 10km races.
Kenyan athlete, Sheila Saina, said they expected to receive their payment immediately after the two races especially since there were no doping tests. “We went home without our payments and now Gubungano owners are no longer responding to our calls. We tried to seek help from Athletics Kenya but they referred us to the BAA. We learnt that Orapa has paid Botswana runners P4, 000, which is way less than the agreed amounts,” Saina said.
She said it was shocking that organisers are dividing athletes based on nationality, which is against World Athletics regulations.
One of the Orapa Half Marathon organisers, Onewamang Letsatsi, told MmegiSport they made a mistake by hosting the event before securing prize money.
“Sponsors that had promised to assist us have not done that, so we are trying to find money and pay athletes. Before giving the athletes P4,000, we had a discussion with them and they agreed to the money while we continued with the search. Only Dintwe refused to accept the money,” he said.
Gubungano organiser, Carlos Sebina, said they have made payments to some athletes.
“I admit that there were some delays. We had to clear foreign athletes before we could pay them. We are still engaging with our sponsors to pay for the different categories,” Sebina said.
Meanwhile, the BAA vice president administration, Oabona Theetso, said they have written to the race organisers to pay the athletes. He said failure to pay will mean their future events are not sanctioned and the association will also approach the courts.