Athletes hard work rewarded
Roodepoort Athletics Club hosted a prizegiving aimed at rewarding athletes who have done exceptionally well this year.
The Roodepoort Athletics Club held its 2024 prizegiving event, and it was a day of rewarding hard work and reflecting on the year’s achievements.
From the grueling Comrades Marathon to weekly parkruns and other races, all the athletes were awarded accordingly.
According to Conrad de Buys, chairperson of the club, this year was one for the books, and all athletes showcased massive improvement, dedication and commitment.
“Building up to our prizegiving, we look at the number of races that a person participates in, and we allocate two categories; male and female. We also have a junior, senior and an open category. Our point system is calculated using percentages.
“We also looked at the number of parkruns that were participated in,” he explained.
Some of the award winners include Thomas Makwarela, who took top honours in the Road Veteran Men, Road Ultra Champ and Comrades First Men in the Club category. He says despite having health challenges this year, he is quite pleased with the results.
Other notable achievements are those of Keabetswe Moletsane, who took the Veteran Lady and Comrades First Lady. Keabetswe credits her passion for sports and the balance of work and home she has endured this year.
“I’m very proud of myself. This year was hard having to balance running, work and raising two teenagers,” Keabetswe expressed.
Judge Mongale, road captain of the club, expressed his extreme pride to himself and other athletes that he was training with who managed to finish the comrades and other races. Judge also took Best in 42km, Best Road Runner, and Overall Master Men.
“We saw great improvements from our runners this year and I’m proud to say most of our runners are already qualifying with great times to run the 2025 comrades,” Judge said.
Other categories include:
• Arno Cilliers: Junior Champ of the Club and 10km, 15 km and 21km Champ.
• Michelle Cilliers: Road Junior Lady
• Maryna Bijker: Senior Road lady and parkrun age grade
Parkrunners:
Raid Synman: 38 parkruns
10 years of service:
Fanyana Cebekhulu
Sarel Cilliers
Hannetjie Venter
Niekie Gouws
20 years of service:
Mike Rossouw
Andre Posthumus
Vince Meyer
