By Thabiso Mazosiwe
The community of Bridgetown, Athlone, in Wilgerplein Street, will play host to the sixth leg of
the WPA Street Athletics series on the 12 September 2018.
Two weeks ago, on Wednesday 29 August 2018, the series visited the streets of KwaNomzamo in Lwandle for the 5th leg in the series, where it was a big hit with the community, with host club Lwandle AC promising to host in 2019 again.
Two more events have been added to the calendar due to the popularity of the series and WPA Development head, Michael Schouw, was elated mentioning that “Street Athletics is growing in popularity and as a result we have added more dates to the programme.
This event belongs to the people and communities in the region are showing us that when programmes start at the grassroot level to upskill kids, providing opportunities to showcase their talent, kids can realise their talents and hope for a brighter future.”
The new dates are Stroebel Street, Ravensmead on the 17 October 2018, Silversands Road, Wesbank on the 24 October 2018 and an unconfirmed venue on the 07 November 2018 with all events starting at 14h00 and finishing at 17h00.
2018 saw the first of the Street Athletics hosted by EersteriverAthletics Club, in Eerste River on the 21st February 2018. Eersteriver Athletics Club had a good understanding of what was to be done prior to the event which led to an increase in participation at the event and the club confirmed that they would love to be part of the series come 2019.
13th March 2018 saw the 2nd street athletics event in Atlantis with hosts Velocity Athletics Club proving a good set up with ample space along the roads and keen club helpers to assist the event, provided an exciting leg with the event running smoothly.
The highlights of the Atlantis event was a mass participation and the parents race which was a crowd favourite on the day.
The 3rd Street Athletics event scheduled on the 16th May in Capricorn Park, Muizenberg was cancelled due to unrest in the area at the time.
Although the event was cancelled the club indicated that they would want to be involved in future.
The 4th Street Athletics event was cancelled by the host club Khayelitsha Athletics Club due to unforeseen circumstances.
WPA Street Athletics, is a series of community focused events, where all youngsters are invited to participate and compete against each other, over short and medium distances.
The ultimate aim of the programme is that all children, from all areas, feel welcome to actively participate as the events take athletics to communities and the people. The programme provides the opportunity to broaden their existing prospects within sport and other non-sports related areas.
For more information please contact Development Officer, Ricardo Jaftha on youth@wpathletics.co.za or 021 418 3232
