Long distance runners from across the country came out in numbers to participate in different Mielie Marathon distances last Saturday. Amongst them were athletes of the Welkom Runners, known as ‘Bese Ya Basebetsi’ (Worker’s Bus). This crew consistently follows a intense training programme for six days in a week and their motto is simply “Dedicated to Improvement”. “Since we started with this initiative about two years ago, our results are getting better and better. We always smash our finishing times per specific marathon and that motivates us to work even harder,” says Nkhetheni Masupa. From the left are Masupa (2:44, overall third position, and first in his age category, gold medal), Jacob Mothokoa (3:04, position 12), Morake Tlhobo (3:12, position 15) and Mbangiso Malindi (3:12, position 16).