This year’s edition of the Xolile Yawa 5 km Fun Run is set for Saturday (10/12) in Bainsvlei, Bloemfontein. This will be the third edition of race, honouring one of South Africa’s finest athletes.
Participants can win monetary prizes and will receive medals for finishing the race. The first prize is R500, the second is R300, and third prize is R200 in both the men’s and women’s categories.
The race is open for all. Registration costs R50 per person, with the race starting at 07:30 at the Bainsvlei Clinic.
The race is organised in partnership with the Bloemfontein-based Fast Legs Athletics Club. Launched in 2016, this event has only been staged twice due to a lack of sponsorship, as well as being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year’s edition is an attempt to sustain it while targeting youngsters to connect with Yawa’s legacy, said Kantoor Nkoane, member of the organising club.
Yawa won multiple middle-distance championships – both on the road and track – and represented the country twice at the Olympic Games.
Nine-time winner of the South African 10 000 m title, with two records, Yawa ran for the President Brand Mine in Welkom in the Free State.
He won an unprecedented two South African half marathon titles in 1986 and 1988. In 1989 he set a national 15 km record of 43:02, which has only been beaten three times since.
Yawa’s record remained the benchmark for many athletes of his generation, and even athletes who mostly compete in 10 km races.
Yawa brought home a bronze medal from the 1992 African Championships in the 10 000 m race and reached the final of the 10 000 m event in the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.
He represented the country in the World Half Marathon Championships the same year and won the Berlin Marathon the following year.
Yawa went on to represent his country at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 and in the marathon at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics.
