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Cape Town - The greatest sporting spectacle, the Olympic Games, are only a year away and Wednesday, August 5 marks exactly 365 days to go before the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
And South African sport is coming to the party to mark the occasion on this important date.
The much loved and ever popular national team mascot, Chukuru the rhino, visits three major South African cities - Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town - on Wednesday, August, to spread awareness of the Rio 2016 Olympics.
At each city Chukuru is being introduced to the public who will have the opportunity to mingle and have their commemorative photos taken with him.
The one-year-to-go show kicked off in Gauteng this morning where Chukuru visited four Gautrain stations - these being Hatfield, Centurion, Midrand and Sandton, starting at 06:00 and ended at 08:45. A bonus for the sporting public was that the national sports mascot was accompanied by 2010 Youth Olympic Games Equestrian bronze medalist Samantha McIntosh and they handed out chocolates to commuters.
Chukuru was also in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, the City bidding to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Africa for the first time. Members of the public caught up with him on the beachfront promenade between 06:00-08:00 and then he’ll also be at Ushaka Marine World Village Walk between 13:00-15:00.
The final city visited by what looks to be an extremely busy Chukuru will be Cape Town and the Mother City will see him visiting the V&A Waterfront between 15:00-18:00.
Says SASCOC CEO, Tubby Reddy: “With only a year to go before the biggest sport spectacle - Olympics, begin, we continue to encourage our athletes to do the final push in their preparations.
“The Olympic and Paralympic selection criteria which were recently announced, ensure that South Africa will be represented by world class athletes who will compete at the highest levels at this event.”
SASCOC president, Gideon Sam added, “Our athletes are honing their skills in various parts of the world in preparation for Rio 2016. Our excitement is growing and with one year to go, the focus is firmly on what each athlete can deliver in Rio.”
Reddy encouraged members of the public to catch up with Chukuru and experience part of the Olympic celebrations.
