ANNUAL MAUN MARATHON LAUNCHED
Botswana Tertiary Students School Sports (BOTESSA) launched its planned annual Maun marathon in Chanoga last week Thursday.
The 42, 21, 10 and 5 kilometre races are expected to attract crowds from across the country and boost local tourism in Maun, which is a gateway to one of the world heritage sites, the Okavango delta.
Speaking at the launch, Senior Officer at Wildlife Training Institute in Maun, Chief Tsholofelo, mentioned that indeed the marathon will help boost tourism revenue in the area.
“It aligns with what is happening in the area and indeed sports tourism will bring a lot of interest that will in turn generate revenue for the tourism sector,” Tsholofelo noted.
He further expressed pride in that BOTESSA has added another crowd-puller to Ngamiland, which is well known for its attractive tourism activities and destinations.
The inaugural marathon that is sponsored by First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) is scheduled to take place on October 29th, 2022 when the tourism activities in the area will be at their peak ahead of the festive season. BOTESSA’S Vice PresidentTechnical, Tebogo Kgari, explained that the marathon is not only open to Botswana citizens but to other countries as well, including members of African University Federation (AUF) and Federation of International University Sports (FISU). At the launch, BOTESSA unveiled the marathon logo which simply captures what Maun stands for. BOTESSA’S Administration Officer - Technical, Bonang Christopher Gasebonwe, explained what the logo represents. “This blue represents water, sunset in orange, and with the running person, we are trying to balance gender, that is why the running person is in abstract and drawn in zebra stripes to represent the wildlife, so it represents the tourism that Maun is well known for.”