Nearly 4,000 athletes take part in the sixth Bella League – True

South African athlete Abednico Mashaba and Zimbabwean player Patience Garauzive emerged as the big winners of the sixth edition of the Beira League, which took place last weekend in the city of Beira, Sofala Province, by taking first place in the federal championship in the categories, male and female, respectively.

Second and third place in the men’s category were taken by Thabo Prince Ndlovu of South Africa and Titosse Passipamira of Mozambique. In the women’s category, after Patience Garauzive were Sara Mário Adolfo of Mozambique, from Manica province, and Rosa Passipamira of Sofala.

The event is one of the largest sporting events in the country with around 4,000 participants including national and international athletes.

The Beira League, organized by the Corner Mozambique Club (CdM) in partnership with the Pérola Negra and Sofala Provincial Athletics Association (APAS), brought together not only the 4,000 athletes registered for the competition, but also thousands of runners’ health fairs and spectators.

Commenting on the attendance, Jan de Vries, Managing Director of Cornelder de Moçambique, said: “The atmosphere was great and I am looking forward to the seventh edition”.

This edition is also notable for its innovation. Participants are registered electronically, which ensures greater fluidity of registrations and, above all, data fidelity: “The system is very efficient, allowing about half of the participants to register within the first few days. We are happy because the registration platform was developed by young students doing internships in companies, which shows that our universities are capable”, emphasizes António Libombo, Deputy Executive Director of CdM.

Prizes rain down

However, the competition produced other results, in the category of Workers of Cape Mozambique (CdM), the male athlete João Simbe won, followed by Isaac Muba (second) and Charana Carlos (third), while in the women’s category, the leader was Safina Mashava, followed by Elta Punguane and Fanissa Ibrahim (third).

In the Port Communities category, the winner for men was Marcelo Muanompuanha, followed by Brizito Casse and Pedro Pedro, and for women, Cátia da Silva, followed by Rita José and Josefa Torcida (third place).

In the male veterans competition, Augusto António won, with Elsane Nhafumba and Joaquim Chigueda taking second and third place respectively. In the female category, Ester Chiweia took first place, followed by Palmira Chiweia. Carmen Felizado took third place.

In the popular men’s competition, Nélio Gogo won first place, followed by Capece António and Wanda Marinda (third place). In the women’s category, Glória Rafael achieved the goal first, followed by Sandra Francisco and Maria Machava. In the student category, in the men’s category, Manda Jequecene won first, followed by Pedro Razão and Saene Gogo, and in the women’s category, Diana Ernesto won, followed by Teresa Duarte and Luísa Alberto.

There were 36 winners in total. Six students in the student category received laptops, tablets and mobile phones, while the remaining 30 received monetary values. The prize money is worth more than one million meticais. It is worth noting that at Largo dos CFM, as part of the event, several parallel events were held, with the focus being on the Health Fair, where various tests related to health were offered, in addition to other services such as the issuance of identity cards (ID) and the Numbered Unique Tax Identification Code (NUIT).