Tour de Tura in the pipeline

The Physically Active Youth (PAY) is planning to host Katutura’s first cycling competition, ‘Tour de Tura’ in July .
The Physically Active Youth which was coined four years ago is a sporting programme started with the funding from the Bicycle Empowerment Network of Namibia (BENN) . PAY head of the cycling programme, Labanino Naftal said the aim of the programme is to help young Katutura cyclists “who are in need of a sense of direction as to what to do with their lives and to help people who have been let down by their communities and families.”
The bicycle race will have four varying distances. Labanino said the organisation is offering training to the participants, and that children as young as three-years old can take part. Training for the competition is done by different volunteers with the organisation training 20 participants per day.
PAY cycling programme was started in 2007, with the help of Namibia Windhoek Pera Power and BENN with the later group donating 105 bicycles to the programme. A team selected from the programme has participated in many competitions taking first, second and third spots in the Namibia Cycle Classic in October 2009.
One of the participants in the PAY programme, Lucky Mbako took part in the Nedbank Cycling Challenge where he made it to the Namibian National Road Crossbar man.