Nobelungu Moloi is one of the more than 600 participants between the ages 12 to 35 that are expected to participate at this year's Provincial Gymnaestrada festival, to be held at Carletonville Recreation Centre this Saturday.
At 27, Nobelungu only started participating in Gymnaestrada last year after hearing about it from friends in her hometown of Ratanda. "I've always been active and played many sports, however gymnastics were unheard of in my township, but since I started last year I haven't looked back", said Nobelungu.
Nobelungu is one of the thousands of people in the province, mostly from townships, that have been introduced to Gymnaestrada, organised by the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation in partnership with the Gauteng Gymnastics Association.
This year hundreds of budding gymnasts, selected from regional Gymnaestrada events that were held around Gauteng, will showcase their skills at the provincial festival that will be held in cooperation with the Merafong Local Municipality on 29 October 2011.
The ever growing Gymnaestrada is intended at promoting mass participation, creativity, diversity and team work, as well as building confident optimistic young people. The project, which also targets people with disabilities and the elderly, also aims to promote healthy lifestyles in communities and promote the development of young sporting and artistic talent.
In July this year South Africa sent a team of over 500 Gymnasts to Lausanne in Switzerland to participate in the 14th World Gynaestrada games.
The team made up of participants from the nine provinces including Gauteng with 52 gymnasts, was the toast of town and for inspiring displays was asked to perform at many other events around Lausanne.
Details of the Gymnaestrada are as follows:
Date: Saturday, 29 October 2011
Time: 10:00 am
Venue: Carletonville Recreation Centre, West Rand
Enquiries:
Nomazwe Ntlokwana
Cell: 083 507 8068
Tel: 011 355 2578
E-mail: nomazwe.ntlokwana@gauteng.gov.za
