In July of that year, Maxime Chaumeton clocked 27:58 in Durban, becoming the first South African to go sub-28 on home soil. Less than a year later, the country had three‘ homegrown’ sub-28s( and a new SA Record) when Precious Mashele and Thabang Mosiako made their breakthrough in the new RUN YOUR CITY event in Gqeberha, with Mashele lowering the SA Record to 27:35. Kabelo Mulaudzi and Stephen Mokoka joined the local sub-28 revolution just a couple of months later in Durban, and since then Adriaan Wildschutt and Elroy Gelant also clocked sub-28s at home, with Adriaan going on to set a new SA Record 27:28 earlier this year in the Gqeberha event of the series.

Glenrose Xaba and Selam Gebre will resume their rivalry in Cape Town

The Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series has also revolutionised women’ s 10K running in SA, with the All-comers Record having been lowered steadily in recent years to a scintillating 30:37 by Kenyan Christine Njoki, in last year’ s Durban race. The Series has now delivered seven of the eight sub-31 times ever run in SA. That same Durban 2024 race saw Glenrose Xaba finally take down Elana Meyer’ s 31-year-old national mark, improving the old SA Record by one second to 31:12.

All to Race for in Cape Town

With the rich history of world class results that the Series has already produced, all eyes will now be on the elite race in Cape Town. The route of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K is fast and flat, and thus tailormade for the elites to chase fast times. Due to the route being point-to-point, it does not qualify for official records, but the prize money and cash incentives for faster times are still up for grabs, so the elites will be giving it everything they have.

The men’ s race will see four of the country’ s sub- 28 runners back in action – Elroy Gelant, Stephen Mokoka, Thabang Mosiako and Kabelo Mulaudzi – with the big question being whether Gelant has recovered fully from his incredible effort in the Hamburg Marathon in Germany to shatter the SA Record. He clocked 2:05:36, taking 57 seconds off the previous mark set by Gert Thys way back in 1999, but that was just a few weeks before this 10km showdown, so he may not be in the running this year. On the other hand, he may be running with newfound confidence, having also posted his first two sub-28s in Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series races last year.

Of course, the local athletes will not simply have the race to themselves. The stacked men’ s field features a number of international speedsters from abroad,

Stephen Mokoka and Kabelo Mulaudzi will be looking for sub- 28s again

including Asbel Kiprop Rutto, Rodgers Kipchirchir Murei and James Kipkogei Kipkoech of Kenya, as well as Aklilu Asfaw from Ethiopia and Joseph Seutloali of Lesotho, amongst others. It means we should expect fireworks when the starting gun is fired on Sunday!

In the women’ s race, Glenrose Xaba starts as the outright favourite amongst the SA contingent, but Tayla Kavanagh, Cacisile Sosibo and Lebo Phalula( fresh from her amazing 40-49 age-group SA Record in the Gqeberha race a few weeks ago) all looking to challenge for the podium as well. They, too, will face an international challenge of note, with Kenya’ s Aisha Zubed Cheptengeny, Ethiopian Selam Gebre and Neheng Khatala of Lesotho spearheading the international challenge.

Looking Forward to It!

With all these top athletes lining up in Cape Town this Sunday, it points to being another fast and furious race for line honours, says Michael Meyer, Managing Director of Stillwater Sports and founder of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY SERIES.“ Having athletes of this calibre racing on SA soil is something we take great pride in, and we look forward to an action-packed race – the perfect way to celebrate the 10th edition of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K!”

Images: Mark Sampson, Kevin Sawyer, Action Photo

32 Run Your City Series