PE Train Race

Great Train Race - Supporting Athletic Development

As part of Vela VKE’s contribution to social development and transformation in South Africa, Vela VKE sponsored a team of development athletes from Khayelitsha competing in the Spoornet Great Train Race in Port Elizabeth. The Great Train race is an annual 10-man relay event over 73 km. It is hotly contested and has become the de facto South African club relay championship. The race is not only between the teams of runners, but also between the TRAIN and the runners - the aim is to beat the steam train!

Vela VKE was pleased to be able to assist the VOB Development Programme because the programme is an ongoing, sustained initiative to develop potential in athletic events, which is yielding very positive and tangible results. It has been growing for more than 9 years and is currently the most active and sustained athletic development programme in the Western Cape.

The programme revolves around some 30 athletes living in the Khayelitsha township and surrounds. There is a weekly training session held at Mandela Park every Monday, led by a qualified coach. The coach himself is a senior athlete who has come through the programme. Through the programme, less privileged people have been able to improve themselves and their position in society. The programme successfully draws on the skills and resources of the broader VOB Running Club to assist development athletes with coaching, kit, transport, medical treatment, skills for employment and teaching. One of Vela VKE’s Cape Town staff, Roger Dickson, is actively involved in running the programme.

The train relay team sponsored by Vela VKE included one athlete who represented South Africa at the World Junior Track Championships, a WP record holder and three others who were WP champions in various events.