31 Jul 2023

South African national Folavio Sehohle and Kenyan national Sheila Saina both from the local Fearless Club, are the champions of the Orange Phikwe Marathon’s 42.2 km men and women races respectively, walking away with P25 000 each.

The 31-year-old Folavio and his female counterpart 27-year-old Sheila emerged victorious after clocking 2:23:08 and 2:42:53 respectively in the 42.2km race.

Sheila is not new to hitting the finishing line first, as she led the pack in a number of marathons she participated in this year, such as the recent Diacore and Kazungula marathons.

"I am happy for emerging victorious in the race, I worked very hard to prepare for the marathons," said Sheila in an interview.

Sheila who participated in this race for the second time, was disqualified last year after missing the route.

Folavio on the other hand said the race was not as difficult as he expected.

"I prepared well for the race. I used the last remaining energy in the last remaining 500m to sprint ahead of Lyno Muchena," he said.

The second runner ups in the 42.2km race Lyno Muchena from Zimbabwe and his female counterpart Lydia Koech pocketed P15 000 each.

Lyno scooped second position again last year. Hard work and determination also worked for Kitsiso Joseph of BDF club and Montshiwa Raokgwathile of Orapa athletic club who scooped position one in the women and men 21.1km race respectively walking away with P7 500 each.

The Diacore marathon 10km race second runner up Raokgwathile, usually competes in the 10km race but went out of his comfort zone to compete in the 21.1km race scooping first position. "The reason I went for the 21.1km race was that the prize money for the 10km race was not attractive so I chose to compete in the 21.1km of which I emerged victorious."

However, he promised to improve on his time, after clocking 1:06:17 which he said was slightly higher than the time he registered at Diacore marathon.

Joseph, who registered 1:21:48 time, also scooped position two and position one in the Diacore and Kazungula marathons.

"I started preparing for this race in early this year because marathons are challenging hence the need for intensive training, she said.

She explained that she experienced difficulties in steep areas but she managed to pull through to maintain her first position.

The second runner ups in the 21.1km women and men’s races Kefilwe Galeitsiwe of Lion’s Den club and Sesebo Matlapeng of Lefika Athletics club bagged P5000 each. In the 10km race, Olebogeng Segolame and Thapelo Galebue scooped first positions in the women and men race walking away with P5 000 each.

The Orange Phikwe marathon, which has a reputation of attracting runners from around the world, attracted thousands of local and international runners who braved the winter cold to sweat it out for prize money.  ENDS