LETLHOGILE MPUANG
Multinational diamond company and sponsors of the annual Gaborone Marathon, Diacore, will increase prizes for the 2017 edition. The marathon which celebrated its fifth year in 2016 is one of the biggest events in the local sporting competitions calendar, with the race attracting more than 5,000 participants from across various countries on the African continent.
The event has also awarded over a million Pula to over 30 deserving charities over the years.
Speaking last week at the prize handover hosted by Stanbic Bank, who are also one of the key sponsors of the marathon, Diacore head of PR and Marketing Thabo Makgato delivered the news.
“The final decision usually comes late into the year, because it depends on the budgets, and how much we are spending that year, which is mostly based on how many runners are participating that year. We need to understand that 6000 people is no small number of people to cater for,” said Makgato.
He said despite not having full knowledge of how much the prize money is set to increase by, the sponsor are somewhat ‘desperate’ to add an increment to the current P120 000 winner’s prize.
“The decision has been taken, we need to find a way to increase the prize money, though we are yet to know how much it is going to increased by, or what the prize will be for next year, but it is definitely going to increase,” he added.
“We have been having constant engagements with the BAA (Botswana Athletics Association), updating them as to how we are planning to improve the competition next year, and how we have bettered on relationship with the athletes,” concluded Diacore head of communications.
At the event, last year’s 21.1Km winners, Rapula Diphoko who won the race in the male category and Onneile Dintwe (female winner) each received their P50000 winning prizes from Stanbic Bank.
Diacore in conjunction with co-sponsors Stanbic, Mascom and GIA made one of the most notable contributions of the marathon bydonating P400,000 to the Gaborone Squash Club, which has gone a long way in allowing the club the much needed resources to completely renovate their facilities.