Barrick marathon club shine beyond Tanzania borders

Dar es Salaam. After participating in a number of local sporting events, the Barrick North Mara marathon club went outside Tanzania’s borders recently when it took part in the 42.2-kilometre Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in South Africa.

Briefing journalists yesterday, the club’s captain Sarah Cyprian, said all the runners of the club managed to complete the full marathon race in which they were also able to market Tanzania.

The club, founded in 2015, said Cyprian learned several lessons from challengers from other countries that featured in the event. Cyprian said the club has a total of 66 runners from whom, 53 are male and 13 women. 

She said some of the competitions in which the club featured included the Kilimanjaro International Marathon – Moshi; Capital City Marathon – Dodoma; Serengeti Migration Marathon 21km–Mugumu; Serengeti Safari Marathon 21km-Lamadi and the Lake Victoria Marathon-Mwanza.

The major events in which the team competed and shined is the Kilimanjaro International Marathon in which it featured in 21km and 42km races.

In the 42km race the club was represented by Cyprian herself.

Speaking about the secret behind the club’s achievements, Cyprian said, “The Barrick Company has a strong policy in supporting its staff in sports. First, by providing training facilities such as a gym, swimming pool, football ground, basketball court and netball court. It also provides various sport equipment for doing exercises, as well as meeting the costs of all services when we go outside the region for competitions.”

She added that the Company, through its health and safety unit, organizes inter-departmental competitions as one of the ways to keep well the physical and mental health of the employees at work. 

Asked how they can manage to allocate time for work and time for doing exercises, she said “Everyone has 24 hours in a day.  At the North Mara Runners Club, we normally allocate one hour a day to exercise in the evening right after work, and sometimes when schedules are tight in the evening, we practise early in the morning before going to work.”

However, she said there are times it is difficult for all of them to feature in competitions due to work duties and instead they choose representatives, who are supported by the company.

Cyprian also commented on the development of the marathon race in the country, saying in recent years there has been a great response to it.

She advised that it is good to start preparing as many young runners as possible so that they can feature in many international competitions.

She added that Tanzania is currently blessed with many talented runners who feature in various long distance races organised in the country.

She called upon fellow citizens to make an effort in allocating even half an hour a day to do exercises. 

“Exercising helps to strengthen mental and physical health. It also helps prevent non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity,” she said. Regarding the club’s future goals, she said, “Our club’s motto is, ‘We run for fun and healthy’, so we still have a responsibility to encourage more staff members to exercise for our health, as exercising also keeps us mentally fit and even enables us to perform our duties at work more efficiently.

“Not only that, but it also makes us compete more effectively in international marathons,” she said.