Stillwater Sports, the organisers of Africa’s leading road running series, the Absa RUN YOUR CITY (RYC) Series, is proud to launch the 2022 SA Elite Athlete Programme aimed at providing South African runners with the opportunity to run world class times on South African soil. The programme is aimed at ensuring that the best South African athletes compete in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series, against some of the best athletes in the world, and are rewarded for world class performances.
“We’ve been working on this exciting element of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series for quite some time and are extremely excited to make it a reality in 2022,” says Michael Meyer, Managing Director of Stillwater Sports and Founder of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series. “The goal behind the SA Elite Athlete Programme is simply to give South Africa’s elite runners the opportunity to improve their PB’s and run world class times on home soil. We want athletes to know that they will be rewarded for hard work, focus and subsequent performance.”
Meyer believes that the SA Elite Athlete Programme is an innovative and leading programme aimed at incentivizing runners to perform throughout the year over the 10km distance.
“We will kickstart the initiative by inviting the top 30 male and top 30 female athletes on the SA Road Running Performance List to participate in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K on Sunday 15 May,” continues Meyer. “The athletes will be divided into three groups, based on performance, with the event covering all participation costs of the top group of qualifiers, such as entry fee, flights, transport, accommodation and meals. From there the top 30 male and top 30 female finishers will be invited to participate in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K on Sunday 10 July.”
And it is in the Durban leg where the real excitement lies, with Meyer announcing a time-based incentive scheme that will see runners rewarded on a sliding scale. “Our goal is to encourage depth of performance as well as quality of performance. Male runners will be rewarded for times ranging from a sub 30 minutes to world record time, with a fantastic incentive on offer for the first SA runner to dip under 28 minutes. On the female side, similarly, the focus will be on both depth and quality of performance, but we really want to see SA women running under 31 minutes, and then starting to attack the sub 30 minutes barrier”.
Athletes that form part of the SA Elite Athlete Programme will also be eligible to win their share in the event prize purse at the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K, Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K and Absa RUN YOUR CITY JOBURG 10K, the combined total of which is R690 000,00.”
Adding to the excitement and status of the events, an international field of world class athletes will join the field, to ensure fast times, and exciting racing!
Meyer concludes, “As organizers of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series, we believe the series now has the most comprehensive Elite Athlete programme of any running event in Africa. We believe athletes are in control of their destiny, and that the programme will make it easier for athletes to determine their own reward, through their performance.
In addition, it’s the duty of events such as the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series, to create opportunities for SA athletes to equip themselves, to be competitive on the world stage.”
EVENT INFORMATION: 2022 Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series
1. Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K Sunday 15 May 2022
2. Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K Sunday 10 July 2022
3. Absa RUN YOUR CITY JOBURG 10K Saturday 24 September 2022
Facebook: @CapeTown10k / @Durban10k / @Joburg10k
Instagram: @CapeTown10k / @Durban10k / @Joburg10k
Hashtag: #RunYourCity #AbsaRunYourCity
Websites: www.runyourcityseries.com
About Absa
Absa Group is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and is one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups.
Absa Group offers an integrated set of products and services across personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management and insurance.
Absa operates in fourteen countries. The Group owns majority stakes in banks in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania (Absa Bank Tanzania and National Bank of Commerce), Uganda and Zambia and has insurance operations in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. Absa also has representative offices in Namibia and Nigeria, and securities entities in the United Kingdom and the United States.
For further information about Absa Group Limited, please visit www.absa.africa
About the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series
A proudly South African mass participation road running series, the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series has been revolutionizing the sport since 2015. A road running celebration like no other, the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series comprises three unique events namely the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K (launched in 2015), the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K (launched in 2017) and the Absa RUN YOUR CITY JOBURG 10K (launched in 2016).
A diverse road running series, the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series integrates businesses, families, investment in community, world class achievement and fun for all participants.
For further information please visit https://runyourcityseries.com/
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