GAUTENG MEC for sport, arts, culture and recreation Lebogang Maile practices what he preaches when it comes to issues relating to his department.

Maile not only encourages youngsters in the province to compete in sports to stay in good health, he also takes part in sport himself.

On Sunday morning, he ran in the 10km race of the Bonitas City2City Marathon.

A regular soccer player, Maile is following in the footsteps of other politicians like Mondli Gungubele, Jabu Moleketi and Malose Kekana.

Gungubele, Moleketi and Kekana are regular runners who take part in top road-running competitions like the Comrades, Two Oceans and Soweto marathons.

"As leaders, we cannot sit back and call on our youth to take part in sports while we don't participate ourselves. We have to show them that this is the way to go to stay healthy," Maile said.

"I was happy to have completed the race and I will be back on the road for the Soweto Marathon on November 6 if there are no government-related commitments on the day.

"I'm happy we have big road-running activities like the City2City and Soweto marathons as these events form part of our strategy to make Gauteng the home of competitive sports."

The men's section of the marathon, and R30000 prize, was won by Eastern Cape's Odwa Tunyiswa, while Lizih Chokore went home with R30000 for being the first woman to cross the finish line.

Central Gauteng Athletics president James Moloi said they appreciated the support from Maile for the event, which started in Pretoria and ended in Johannesburg.

"We are happy the MEC is not only supporting us as one of the leaders of the Gauteng provincial government but also as a participant," Moloi said.