Out of the targeted 6 000 runners who were anticipated to participate at this year’s Kazungula Bridge Marathon, the event which was held on the 22nd February 2025 in Kazugula, attracted only 3,800 registered participants.
The number of registered runners consisted of 600 international runners while 3,200 were local athletes. When the event was incepted in 2022 it attracted 2 923 runners, in 2023 it attracted 3 595 runners while 5 500 runners registered for the last year’s event.
However, the Kazungula Bridge Marathon CEO Obert Morgan has told Times Sport that their aim is to see the numbers of the runners registering for the event increasing annually. Morgan stated that low turnout of runners at this year’s event was due to heavy rainfalls that have been experienced countrywide more especially in the Southern parts of Botswana. He noted that some runners from the Southern part of Botswana who had already registered could not make it to the event due to the floods which have been recently experienced.
“There were lots of uncertainties in terms of travels especially from the Southern part of the country due to the fact that Gaborone roads were closed due to the floods,” he said.
He also indicated that they had experienced issues with their online registration system which is reported to have restricted some runners to register for the marathon, but was subsequently rectified. Despite that, Morgan noted that the event went well as the technical officers managed the route quite well unlike last year where some runners missed the route.
Meanwhile, Kenyan runners Lazurus Too and Rholex Kogo have dominated the 42.2km race under both the open men and open women categories. Too took position one under the open men’s category recording a time of 2:17:53 while Kogo secured the first position under the open women’s category with a time of 2:39:39. Both runners have pocketed an amount of P75 000.
Edward Mwale from Zambia has secured the second position under the open men’s category with a time of 2:19:04 followed by Zimbabwe’s Ngonidzashe Ncube on the third position who recorded 2:20:04. The duo has walked away with P40 000 and P20 000 respectively.
Ethel Pangiso from Zimbabwe and Likeledi Majara from Lesotho took position two and three respectively under the 42.2km open women’s category. Pangiso clocked 2:47:40 while Majara recorded 2:48:07. They have also won P40 000 and P20 000 respectively.
Zimbabwean runners Moses Tarakinyu (1:05:36), Wayne Kabongo (1:05:40) and Ebel Chibanda (1:06:32) have dominated under the open male 21.km category securing the first, second and third position respectively. The trio pocketed P25 000, P15 000 and P10 000 respectively.
Under the 21.1km open women’s category, Namibia’s Lavania Haitope took position one clocking 1:15:59, followed by Zimbabwe’s Caroline Mhandu who recorded 1:16:43 while South Africa’s Anene Bosman took position three with a time of 1:24:00. They have also walked away with P25 000, P15 000 and P10 000 respectively.
