New initiative in the pipeline to help young guns

THE Legends Marathon is in full swing today as top international and national running talent take on the ultra 68km race and

With this being the third edition of the race and the history of it still in its infancy, much is still to be done and a

21.1km

half-marathon. lot will be changed over the years as the event looks to leave its mark.

This year saw the successful entry of the Legends Wellness Expo and it will only get bigger and better over the years.

Next year is expected to be the launch of another new and ambitious project from Legends founder and chairman Luthando Bara.

“We are having discussions that are at an advanced stage with the University of Fort Hare and the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC) to establish an athletics development hub that will be more than an academy and will supply support, training, coaching and those type of things,” said Bara.

“We are focusing on athletes from disadvantaged and rural communities so they can be a part of the running movement.

“The parkruns that we have are a good initiative, but we want to build on that and have something that targets rural communities.”

Fort Hare already has a really good cricket academy and hub structure in place and if this initiative follows a similar course it could lead to some wonderful talent being found and nurtured.

“There is so much talent here, they are not in your upmarket communities, but in your rural areas and no one is nurturing them,” said Bara.

“We can also use an initiative like this to help get rid of the scourge of drugs and alcohol abuse in the various communities.”

The idea is that the hub will aim to provide training and various other things to the athletes that will help them to forge a career in running.

“We want to provide them with training, link them to sponsors, link them to clubs, link them to trainers, link them to coaches and develop them in terms of financial management skills,” said Bara.

“We want to provide a more holistic development when it comes to the athletes.”

Funding will need to be sorted if it is to be a success and fundraising

“In the entry form for the race we have asked people to contribute to this dream so all the money that we collect from the forms that people would have pledged will all go into the athletics development hub.

“We will also be going out to look for sponsors that will directly contribute towards the development of athletes and buy into this dream.

“The hope is that the hub will be up and running by the next financial year and we will then be able to watch the progress with interest.

“In the next financial year we should have this initiative up and running,” said Bara.

“All the partners we have engaged are very excited.’’

has

already

begun.