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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

Two UFS campuses work together on a Ph.D.

2007-04-24

Dr George Thamae, lecturer in Sesotho Education at the National University of Lesotho, this week became the first student in ten years to receive a doctor's degree during the University of the Free State's (UFS) autumn graduation ceremony from the Department of African Studies. It was also the first time that staff from this department on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein and the department on the Qwaqwa Campus worked together to produce a Ph.D. Dr Thamae's thesis, entitled: Standardising the Sesotho orthography: A clinical investigation, serves as the basis for the proposed standardisation of the Sesotho orthography with a view to achieve a uniform system of writing for all speakers of Sesotho, both in Lesotho as well as in South Africa.

During the ceremony were, from the left: Dr Elias Malete (acting head of the Qwaqwa Campus, from the Department of African Studies at the Qwaqwa Campus and co-promoter), Dr Thamae and Prof. Mohlomi Moleleki (Departmental Chairperson of the Department of African Studies on the Main Campus and promoter of Dr Thamae).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

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