Times Of Swaziland: SAMKELISIWE DEJECTED AFTER DISQUALIFICATION

SAMKELISIWE DEJECTED AFTER DISQUALIFICATION
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Ntokozo Magongo on 10/10/2019 08:50:00


MBABANE – Winner of the FSRA Marathon, Samkelisiwe Tfwala was left dejected
after she was stripped of the title of finishing as the first liSwati during the
Imbube Marathon.
Tfwala was disqualified by the technical officials having already received the
accolades of being the first liSwati woman to cross the finish line in the
42.2km. The E30 000 prize was handed over to Winile Mnisi. Tfwala was left with
the accolades package including the gold medal, towel and the congratulatory
card with the E30 000 cheque awarded to her teammate at the Royal Eswatini
Police Service (REPS) Mnisi. Tfwala’s brother, who also trains athlete
Bongisipho Tfwala, said they were left with more questions than answers after
they were made aware of the disqualification moment before the presentation and
they made attempts to protest but to no avail.
Tfwala was the winner of the first edition of the Imbube Marathon in 2016 and
she was recently the champion in the Financial Services Regulatory Authority
(FSRA) marathon that was held just before the Imbube Marathon. “We were left
dejected after the outcome with the athlete having performed so well. I believe
she deserved the championships and we were not given the proper right to lodge a
complaint or a protest. They claim she got assistance but that was long after
she had crossed the finish line,” he said.
Tfwala said they still wanted to lodge complaints or the protest and they want
the disqualification to be substantiated. Athletics Eswatini (AE) Secretary
Thoba Mazibuko said the results that were released were final. He said there
were a lot of complaints from runners and they went through them and those who
had genuine complaints were attended to and problems sorted.
Mazibuko said there were rules and regulations that needed to be followed in all
races and if a runner failed to adhere, it was highly possible that he would be
disqualified.