Sports academy fund-raising short of target

NTHAKO MAJORO

MASERU – Newly formed Vultures Sports Academy seeks to have a successful second edition of the Boot Camp and CrossFit event intended to raise funds towards sustaining the academy that is currently without sponsorship. According to the Academy’s Director, Alecs Basitang, the first edition of the event which also included a 15km walk around the capital city Maseru last Saturday was a success.

The aim is to hold the event once a year and Basitang said his organisation would need to start advertising it on time in order to have a successful event by next year. The academy’s target was to raise M10 000 from last Saturday’s event, from about 300 attendees. But Basitang said they managed to attract about 98 people, from whom they raised between M8 000 and M9 000.

“Apparently, we did not meet the target but people were there and the event was able to raise enough money to pay for the venue (Maseru Club for the Boot Camp) and lunch for the participants,” said Basitang in an interview with Public Eye on Monday this week. “It did not make profit but in general it was a successful event and most people liked it.” Basitang further said: “And we are looking forward to success in the next event.”

Unlike the first edition which was held in the middle of the month, Basitang said the next edition would likely be held towards the end of the month. “Maybe the plan should be to change the date to the end of a month when many people have money because another challenge is that people don’t have money.

“But I don’t have any doubts. This was the beginning and the future will bring us something.” Basitang said the money that was raised would help his organisation to buy training equipment, among other things.   “For the practice’s sake, every school will be supporting us with equipment, but we will also need to have our own equipment to be used during our competitions.

“This is why the money raised is going to be helpful in that regard.” Vultures Sports Academy is meant to cater for all sporting codes and develop children from as early as six years old.

There are already a number of sports academies in the country, among them is Run4pride Track & Field Academy and D’MAMAZ SOCCER ACADEMY by former local athlete Pule Rantšeli and former local premier league coach Retšelisitsoe Lephaila, respectively. Just like Vultures Sports Academy, Run4pride and D’MAMAZ are also new academies.