Grevasio Mpani and Nalicy Chirwa have won the 5th edition of the Blantyre 42.195 km race in the men and women categories respectively today morning.
Mpani finished the race 2:19;01 to be crowned champion in the men’s category and walked away with MK1.5million.
Ndacha Mcherenje of Moyale barracks club in Mzuzu finished on second position with the time of 2:20;46 and pocketed MK1 million while South African based runner Mphatso Nadolo finished on third position with the time of 2:26;58 to go home with MK500,000.00.
In the women category Nalicy Chirwa finished the race with the time of 3:00;07 to finish on first position and win the race for the fourth consecutive time. She has walked away with MK1.5 million.
Tereza Master of Mulanje athletics club finished on second position with the time of 3:09;26 and pocketed home MK1million, while Zinenani Stafano finished on third position with the time of 3:24;12 to go home with MK500,000.
Speaking at the event, Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) Vice Board Chairperson Charles Ulaya Banda explained that as Council they are very impressed with this year’s event.
‘’We are very appreciative for the ones who organized this event and as you can see, we have made some milestones compared to last year. The record of last year has been broken by almost 13 minutes for the men and 3 minutes for the women which means that we are making progress, for your own information the one who has won today finished on position 13 last year, this just shows how important this race is to the athletes and to Malawians,’’ explained Ulaya Banda.
On his part the main organizing committee chairperson Chifundo Tethani explained that the event has been a success.
‘’We were looking at continuous improvement and as a committee I believe we have achieved that, and we are happy with the event that just happened. The notable highlight of the years event has been the finishing time of the athletes, you know that this race gives the athletes a platform to compete amongst themselves and we have seen that each year they are improving their time,’’ explained Tethani.
The 5th edition of the Blantyre 42.195 km race was held under the theme ‘’changing lives’’ whose proceeds will be channeled to Cyclone Freddy victims.
