BUCO has come on board as sponsor of the Kowie Striders’ flagship annual 10/27km race which takes place on October 8. “We ’re extremely happy – we’ve never had a big sponsor before,” said Kowie Striders chairman Sticks Stiglingh at a handover of T-shirts to the club on Tuesday night.
Buco’s sponsorship includes medals, T-shirts, bunting, prizes and spot prizes for the race, which attracts runners from Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and East London. “It’s going to be a long-term relationship and I think it will build into a very nice race,” Stiglingh said.
The 10/27km race has been around for 37 years, and was the Striders’ first race when the club was formed. Both the 10km and 27km races are EP League road races.
Gerber said Buco was motivated to become the main sponsor as many of the hardware store’s customers were members of the Kowie Striders. “We ’ve also had staff who have been members,” she said. “It’s a nice event and draws people to town and I think it’s going to grow year-on-year.”
Stiglingh said the club wanted to build the 10km race and as an incentive was offering R500 in prize money to the school with the most entrants. The prize is sponsored by Strata Blue Star from Sanlam. “You can only run the 27km when you are over 16, so we have few school kids for that. For the 10km you have to be at least 14,” he said.
Strata Blue Star from Sanlam is also sponsoring R500 cash prizes for the club with the most entrants in both races.
The Kowie Striders also want to launch an EP League cross-country race in future. “We’re still working on a route,” Stiglingh said.
