This year’s Overtakers Women’s Day race is expected to see entries swell towards the 2,000 mark across the three events, as the race continues to gain local and provincial popularity.
The race kicks off on August 9 from 6.30am at Beacon Bay Country Club and includes a 5km, 10km and 21.1km race.
Hosted by Beacon Bay’s Overtakers Running Club, the event attracted almost 1,200 entries last year and has been heralded for motivating the growth of local half marathon races with endorsement from competitive runners such as London Marathon runner Malixole Kalindeni from Old Selbornian Road Runners.
Kalindeni credits the race as a great opportunity for serious runners to practice speedwork and hills and use sport as a vehicle through which to drive social change targeting gender-based violence (GBV) and racism.
Overtakers Running Club founder Templeton Yoba said the event had become an important hallmark of provincial road running and that the running community will soon call for the event to become a national race, which Overtakers is keen to embark on, but is limited by funding capacity.
Yoba said: “In the last seven years, we have hosted an incident free race that has attracted support from the running fraternity within and beyond the Eastern Cape province.
“It has contributed towards the growth of the regional economy and has enabled stakeholders across sport and social justice to work together to fight GBV. Running communities are a large part of our societies and by inculcating the spirit of promoting activism against GBV, we are going a long way towards unseating unhealthy beliefs and prejudices that contribute to GBV, even in sports.
“The race was inspired by the experiences of our former deputy chair, Noluthando Mahlangeni who, in 2017 during the Masters Marathon, was lagging behind her team in the dark, was left on her own.
“This made her feel vulnerable towards becoming a target of GBV and was as a result of her fear during this race that as a club, we realised that not enough is done in sport and in society to prioritise women’s wellbeing and we wanted to be a part of the change.”
The race is supported by the University of Fort Hare and the social awareness campaigns regarding GBV will be spearheaded by Nokwanda Patocka Foundation and Eastern Cape Social Workers Veterans’ Association.
Border rugby legend Dr Thandabanthu August, former Springbok player in the 1970s and who also played against the British Lions will present prizes to the winners.
Manual entries are available at the Sportsman’s Warehouse until August 2 and late entries and collections, on August 6-8 at Beacon Bay Country Club. Online entries are available at: https://entrytickets.net/ womensday.
For more information please contact: templetonyoba@gmail.com.
