OLYMPIC SUCCESS FOR JUMPING KIDS

Over the past 39 years, Murray & Roberts has celebrated development projects transforming the lives of young people from at-risk communities through sport at the annual Jack Cheetham and Letsema Awards.

Jumping Kids, winners of the 2019 Letsema Award, provides amputees and children with limb mobility anomalies or deficiencies with the tools to be successful contributing members of society through access to prosthetic and mobility devices, education and training and sporting opportunities and coaching.

We are incredibly proud of three athletes from Jumping Kids who inspired us with their achievements at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Puseletso Mabote competed at his first major championships and set a new African record of 12,66 seconds in the men’s T63 100m event, coming seventh overall.

Tebogo Mofokeng set an African record and took fourth place in the men’s 400m T62 with a time of 50,09 seconds. This was his Paralympic debut and competing at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics has been one of his biggest dreams.

Ntando Mahlangu took two gold medals with an impressive and nail-biting performance. Ntando jumped 7,17m at the men’s long jump T63 to set a new world record and ran a 23,59 men’s 200m T61.

Said Ntando after the Games, “I do not compete for myself. I compete for the people. It is bigger than Ntando Mahlangu. It is about creating a legacy for more athletes with physical challenges to get the opportunity to pursue sport at this level. I hope that my performance in Tokyo inspired all who watched and created better understanding about disability as a whole.”

The Jack Cheetham and Letsema Awards have been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but we are hopeful they will resume soon.