One of Pretoria’s leading athletic administrators and former Comrades marathon champion Nick Bester recently received a Chancellor’s medal award from the North-West University Mafikeng Campus.

The award was handed to him at the recent Autumn Graduation ceremony on the campus.

The Chancellor’s medal is awarded to persons who have shown exceptional achievement of a non-academic nature, and/or exceptional contribution in any sphere of life that is compatible with the vision and mission of the University.

Having contributed extensively to the development of sports in the country both as sportsman and administrator, Bester will join a long illustrious list of North-West University Mafikeng Campus honourees bestowed with this prestigious honour over the years.

His exceptional career includes many years of achievements as an athlete. He has won more than 500 Gold medals, 300 Silver medals and 50 Bronze medals in road running, triathlons, canoeing, duathlons, cycling, mountain biking and swimming.

Due to his diversity in sport and raw talent, he can be recognized as the most versatile and colourful athlete in South Africa today.

With all these accomplishments under his belt Bester also managed to perpetuate his name in the Guinness World Record when he was part of a relay team of 10 runners who completed a distance of 1 000 miles in a time of 93 hours.

Bester is nowadays the manager of the Nedbank running club who is in charge of the careers of some of the country’s best road athletes.