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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

Together we can make a greener planet

2012-03-02

Students are rewarded for their efforts with waste recycling and energy saving on campus.
Seen here is Molete Lerothodi of Kyalami Residence, winner of the recycling and energy saving competition, together with Boipelo Malope, Ms Green South Africa.
2 March 2012
Photo: Johan Roux

Sustainability, to live green, energy saving – call it what you like. This was the focus of the Clean Campus campaign that students on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State introduced last year. Apart from it being an opportunity to reward students for their hard work, experts on campus also got the chance to share interesting information with onlookers.

An interesting fact to chew on is that the UFS’s electricity account is to increase by an estimated R38 million rand - from R19 million in 2008 to R57 million in 2012. Another interesting morsel - the university generates 20 tons of waste a day.

Although the university will implement a waste management plan in the near future, experts agree: save water, save electricity and do not squander our precious energy resources.

Madelief Residence was crowned the winner of the Clean Campus campaign. The residence’s reward – a cheque of R1 500. Kestell was second and won a gas braaier.

The competition will be the project of the SRC: Student Development and Environmental Affairs in future.

In the recycling and energy saving competition, which attracted entries from 18 of the 23 residences, Kyalami was placed first, Roosmaryn second and Akasia third.

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