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Four universities to walk 200 000 km in ten weeks

12 April 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

“May the best team win the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge!” said LJ van Zyl, Pedometer Challenge ambassador.

Participants in the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge will start improving their health step by step after the University of the Free State (UFS) challenged the Stellenbosch University, Central University of Technology, and North-West University (NWU) to an eight-week walking competition.

South African 400-metre hurdles record-holder and the Pedometer Challenge ambassador, LJ van Zyl, embraced the initiative as an alternative method to achieve fitness. “I am so tired of running and this is great way to stay fit,” he said during the official launch on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on 5 April 2019.

Inter-institutional fight for fitness

Last year, the UFS Division for Organisational Development and Employment Wellness in the Department of Human Resources led a UFS-only challenge that saw 60 teams of staff members log a total of 54 606 km in eight weeks. The division then challenged the NWU.

Together, the NWU and UFS walked 132 000 km. This year, the UFS is taking it one step further by challenging two more institutions.

Leading the way

“We aim to get South Africa active – starting with the UFS – by embracing fitness and health ourselves,” said Arina Engelbrecht, UFS Employee Wellness Specialist.

Participants on all fitness and activity levels will gun for a 200 000 km target over 10 weeks.

The challenge kicked off on the Bloemfontein Campus with a 3-km walk at the launch, leaving 199 997 km between the four universities for the rest of the eight-week challenge.

News Archive

Academic takes Afrikaans to community

2009-09-11

Ms Corlietha Swart, lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the University of the Free State, expresses her passion for Afrikaans through her involvement with various community projects like the Bloemfonteinse Skrywersvereniging, of which she is the chairperson. This project has approximately 145 members countrywide. Annually this vibrant society, which turns 40 next year, organises a national writing competition which has grown into the largest of its kind with approximately 1 054 entries this year, including those from overseas. A workshop for budding writers is also presented annually and is attended free of charge by the prize winners of the writing competition as part of their prizes. During this year’s event, the publication Inkvars 2009, which contains the winning contributions of the winners of the national writing competition, was launched. Ms Swart compiled the publication’s volume of creative contributions which also contains the adjudicators’ reports and is a handy guide for teachers of creative writing classes. Pictured at the workshop from the left, front, are: Ms Swart (Chairperson: BSV), Prof. Hans du Plessis (Presenter), Mrs Cecilia van der Linde (Vice-Chairperson: BSV). Back, from the left, are: Mr Kassie Joubert (Committee Member: BSV), Mrs Christa Jonker-Jordaan (Committee Member: BSV) and Ms Magda Janse van Rensburg (Treasurer: BSV).
Photo: Supplied

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