Glenvista masters athlete compete at masters champs
At the world championships, she will be competing in the 5 000m race walking on the track and 10km road walk.
Local masters athlete from Glenvista Ronelle Botha (60) will be participating in the World Masters Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland, which takes place from June 29 to July 10.
She took up the sport of running late in her life, after supporting her children, in 2013 mainly doing middle distance and road running. At the age of 55, she changed disciplines and started walking.
Her son Armin Botha is a well-known 1 500m athlete, and his wife Zelda (Schultz) is one of South Africa’s top woman walkers.
Botha has gone from strength to strength and recently achieved her national masters colours and took the title in the 10km W.55 at the Athletics South Africa (ASA) road walk championships in a time of 1:03:23.
She also excels in the 5 000m track walk with the best time of 30:21:23 and the 3 000m track walk with the best time of 18:58:15.
Botha is modest about her performances and attributes her success to her well-known race walking coach, Carl Meyer, the support of her family and colleagues.
At the world championships, she will be competing in the 5 000m race walking on the track and 10km road walk.
