Moorosi Tsiane
THE Matekane Group of Companies (MGC) will this year pump in a whopping M736 000 into the second edition of the annual MGC Sports Extravaganza to be held in Mantšonyane, Thaba-Tseka on 14 March 2020.
The event will feature a football tournament, a half marathon and cycling while a golf tournament will be held later in the year.
MGC head of corporate communications and marketing, ‘Mamotake Matekane, told the media in Maseru yesterday that they were happy that the event has returned bigger and better this year.
“We are proud to return with a bigger event as envisaged with the introduction of the Bocheletsane Cycling Tour,” Matekane said.
“We already had a football tournament and the Bocheletsane Half Marathon. The total amount of money to be used in the games is M736 000.
“Last year we had exhibition games and after their success, we decided to continue this year.”
She said this year they have only taken premier soccer league teams to ensure a balance. Last year they had some Thaba-Tseka teams in the tournament.
In football, the premier league teams that finished the first round of the season in the top four have qualified for the tournament.
Linare will play Lifofane in the first semi-final while reigning league champions Matlama take on bitter rivals Bantu in the second match. The final will be played later in the day.
All the matches will be played at Bocheletsane Stadium while the half marathon will start and end at Bocheletsane School.
The winners in the soccer tournament will walk away M195 000 richer while the runners-up will pocket M115 000. The other two teams will take home M85 000 each.
The cycling tour will start at MGC Park in Maseru and end at Bocheletsane.
Matekane said since this is the first cycling tournament, they would only sponsor it to the tune of M20 000 as they already have running projects with the cycling federation.
The half marathon winners in both the male and female categories will each get M10 000 for the first place, M6000 (first runners-up) and M4000 (second runners-up).
Premier League management Committee (PLMC) chairperson Ikarabele Sello said the soccer tournament will gobble M500 000.
There will also be individual prizes in football with the player of the tournament and man of the match awards each getting M3 000, top goal scorer will get M2 500, goalkeeper and the coach of the tournament will get M2000, the referee and the assistant referee of the tournament will each get M1 500 and M1 000.
