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Mehluli Sibanda in Victoria Falls
AN overwhelming number of athletes are taking part in this year’s Econet Victoria Falls Marathon with over 4 000 runners expected to take to the road this morning.
Race co-ordinators confirmed last night that 500 registered for the full marathon, 2 000 for the half marathon and 1 597 entered the fun run. For the recently introduced Steward Bank Relay Challenge, entries had been left open while for the other races it closed at 4pm yesterday. Econet Wireless chief operations officer Fayaz King was delighted with the interest shown in the race with athletes from Zimbabwe, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, United States of America, Australia, Zambia and South Africa being some of those who have registered to run this morning.
“It’s growing at a phenomenal rate, I was there and there is every indication that it will be excess of about 3 500 plus athletes, some of the races are also oversubscribed because of the capacity of the bridge that’s part of the race so they will probably limit that which means we will probably need to look at the re-routing if it’s going to get bigger,’’ said King.
What excites King the most is the fact that those who market the event do not only sell the marathon but the other activities being offered by the resort town.
“For me the most important or the beauty is what it does for the country first, you have the spin off effects, the guys who market the Econet Victoria Falls Marathon they don’t just market the race, they market all the other extra activities that happen. Again it’s a unique race, it’s the only one that is run where you have one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and it’s also different in that it’s not just a race, it’s the town’s race,’’ he said.
One of the headaches for the sponsors, organisers, tourism players and the City Fathers is how to accommodate the growing number each year. With the marathon growing each year, King believes that hotels have to also increase their rooms to accommodate the increasing numbers.
“One of the biggest limitations that we find is how we are going to accommodate in excess of 2 000 athletes that will come here at one time here at any one time. The hotels right now are 100 percent booked, the lodges are 100 percent booked, a lot of the people will actually try to come in as early as possible to acclimatise themselves so the need for more rooms in Victoria Falls becomes an interesting phenomena now,’’ King said.
— @Mdawini_29
derick.khumalo