At the Central Gauteng Athletics Award ceremony at Monte Casino on Saturday night (28 November 2015), Lebogang Shange was honoured with the award of Athlete of the Year in the Senior Men category.
Shange has broken four South African records, won the All African Games in the Democratic Republic of Congo, won the IAAF race walking challenge in Dudince, Slovakia and came 11th in the IAAF world Championships in Beijing this year.
The records he has set this year include:
- 3000m in 11m 20s on the track at HPC in Pretoria at an Athletics Gauteng North league meeting
- 20km on the road in Lugano Switzerland at the IAAF race walking challenge he set the record at 1h 21m 61s , and then broke his own record in August Beijing 1h 21m 43s
- 5000m on the track at Cork City Athletics meetings in Ireland 18m 66s
- 20 000m on the track in Bedford, England at the English Athletics Championship in 1h 23m 00s
Shange, who is an orphan from Orange Farm, thanked his ‘family’; Brenda Wakfer, who introduced him to walking, coached him and helped him find sponsors, his coach, Chris Brits, the team at the Tuks High Performance Centre, and his sponsor Ivan Glasenberg.