James Bantom clinches first place in a very impressive 17:28. Photo supplied.
Roodepoort parkrun attracted more than 500 runners this past weekend, with most taking advantage of the slightly cooler weather to try and better their times over the 5km course.
James Bantom finished the race in first place with a blistering 17:28, followed nearly a minute later by Kokestso Qina, who did it in 18:17.
Third-place runner Silvester Mukandi crossed the finish line more than three minutes later, managing a time of 21:47.
Silvester Mukandi crosses the finish line. Photo supplied.
The first woman to cross the finish line was Roodepoort parkrun stalwart Maryna Bijker, who finished in eighth place overall with a perfectly respectable 22:43.
As always, the parkrun attracted a whole host of first-timers, and the cooler weather made for competitive times with a whole host of runners setting their personal best times on the day.
As always, the parkrun saw many milestones reached, including Ian Hendry, who finished his 200th parkrun in 38th place in a time of 28:09, and Gabriel Wentzel, who crossed the parkrun finish line for the 300th time in 38:25.
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"Johan is an internationally published journalist and editor with extensive experience in news and industry reporting. His work has featured in numerous publications over the years.
He cut his teeth at the Roodepoort Record and Northside Chronicle as proofreader, swiftly progressing to junior journalist. He later joined Randfontein Herald as journalist and eventually worked his way up to becoming editor. During his years away from Caxton, he fulfilled journalist and editor positions for various industry publications at the once mighty Malnor Media House right up to their closure in 2019. This position saw him traveling all over the world on writing assignments. Since 2019, he has worked as a freelancer for various publishing houses, and had a year-long stint as senior editor for a large stable of retail and medical B2B titles, until rapid growth of his own small business required his fulltime attention. At the end of 2023, with his own business now fully staffed, Johan decided to dedicate himself to his first love, working as a local journalist for the good of his community.
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