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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

Workshop: Agricultural Research for Development in the FS.

2006-05-31

The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Directorate Research Development at the University of the Free State (UFS) presented a workshop to discuss Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) in the Free State.

The project is part of the institutionalisation of ARD within the South African education, research and development framework and is lead by a national ARD task team and managed by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in collaboration with the International Centre for Development Orientated Research in Agriculture (ICRA), based in The Netherlands.

Some of the guests attending the workshop were from the left: Ms Lindie Botha (UFS ARD Coordinator), Ms Colletah Chitsike (Southern Africa representative of the ICRA), Mr Lephallo Ramotsabi (Project Manager of the National Development Agency), Mr Louw Steytler (Chairperson of Free State Agriculture), Prof Frans Swanepoel (Director: Research Development at the UFS), Mr Benedict Mokoena (MUCPP) and Dr Aldo Stroebel (UFS representative on the national ARD task team). Photo: Stephen Collett

Some of the guests attending the workshop were from the left: Ms Colletah Chitsike (Southern Africa representative of the ICRA), Mr Lephallo Ramotsabi (Project Manager of the National Development Agency), Mr Louw Steytler (Chairperson of Free State Agriculture) and Prof Frans Swanepoel (Director: Research Development at the UFS). Photo: Lacea Loader

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