The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
BULAWAYO’S Siyephambili Cycling Club made a clean sweep at the Tour de Great Dyke cycling competition with the club’s members taking the top three prizes.
The four-legged event that began in Darwendale on Wednesday ended yesterday in Zvishavane with Andrew Chikwaka coming out tops and walking away with $1 000 after winning two-legs of the race while his stablemate, Advocate Phiri came second and was awarded $800 and Nkulumo Dube took the third prize of $500.
The trio dominated the race winning all the four legs between them.
Chikwaka was excited about the win saying he owed it to his teammates who have been assisting him in improving his racing.
“I want to thank God for the win, I am really elated about coming first. I also want to pay homage to my team members, they have been encouraging me and teaching me how to be an effective racer, I look forward to winning more races,” he said.
The third edition of the annual race, which had 28 participants cycle over 500km, saw the first leg starting in Darwendale and ending in Chegutu on Wednesday and on Thursday the second leg ended in Kwekwe with the racers cycling to Shurugwi on Friday. On Saturday the cyclists started at Unki Mine in Shurugwi ending in Zvishavane Town where a prize giving ceremony was held.
This was the first time the race awarded prizes and chairman of the organising committee, Munyaradzi Hwengwere attributed that to the coming in of sponsors.
He said they are looking forward to engaging more corporate partners next year and also attracting a bigger field of cyclists.
“We are excited at the way the race was organised this year as we managed to get more partners on, we managed to create more excitement around the event with our cyclists also going away with prizes for the first time in our three year history.
“We managed to bring on board TN Beverages, Metbank, Agribank, Agriseeds and Pote Holdings among other partners,” said Hwengwere.
It was not only joy for the victors but also for the only female racer to complete the four-legs, Portia Chitendere, who walked away with $500 and a trophy after guest of honour, Minister of State for Midlands Province, Larry Mavima offered a prize for the what he called the “resilience award”.
Mavima said he believes one should never give up in whatever endeavour they are doing until they achieve it and Chitendere had showed that despite knowing she won’t win the race, she kept on racing and completed the full race.
“In life once you give up, you will not achieve much and my motto is never give up so when I was invited to officiate here I thought I would come up with that award because while the racer came last she gave all her effort and ensured she completed the gruelling race,” he said.
The oldest racer, who completed the full race, 76-year-old Wilson Dube also walked away with a smile on his face after Zvishavane-Ngezi constituency Member of Parliament, Dumezweni Maweti offered a $500 prize for the most senior racer to complete the race.
Dube also walked away with a solar battery from Exide and together with Chitendere and Phiri, youngest racer at 21 years old, were given grocery hampers by furniture manufacturer, Adam Bede.
Tour de Great Dyke was organised by YaFM in conjunction with Minex and Buy Zimbabwe as part of an educational programme to enlighten people about the mineral resource rich belt.
