ROAD RUNNING
Another Bite at
Lusapho comes home for a record-breaking third Hannover Marathon win
BOSTON
With a frustrating injury lay-off now behind him, Lusapho April is determined to get back to the world class marathon performances that saw him win or podium at Big City Marathons in Europe and the USA, as well as run in two Olympic Marathons, and it starts with the Boston Marathon this month.
– BY SEAN FALCONER
Boston is not only the oldest Big City Marathon in the world, having been run for the first time in 1897, it is also one of the most prestigious, but getting into the starting field is not easy. As an average Joe runner, you need to qualify by running another marathon, and the qualifying time standards are pretty steep. A male runner in the 18-34 age category needs to run 3:05 or faster just to be considered, and even then your entry goes into a ballot system if there are more entries than spots available – which there usually are.
Another way to get into Boston is to be invited to be part of the elite field – as an IAAF Gold Label race, the Boston organisers needs to invite a certain number of elite athletes capable of world class times, from a certain number of countries – so to get an invite, you need to consistently be amongst the best in the world. It is therefore a real feather in the cap that 35-year-old South African marathon star and two-time Olympian Lusapho April will be lining up for his third Boston Marathon on Monday 16 April.
Representing Border at the SA Half Marathon Champs
His previous two Boston runs in 2014 and 2015 produced commendable 15th and 12th positions respectively, and having recently returned to action after a frustrating injury lay-off for the last few months of 2017, he says he is aiming to improve on those results.“ The injury is a thing of the past and I am ready to race. Hopefully my body will respond on the day of the race and I will do well,” says Lusapho.
“ I want to improve on my previous performances in Boston, so I’ ll be going for at least a top 10. The downhill course hammers your quads, but I know what to expect, and the races in the USA tend not to be fast from the start, more like a champs race, which plays to my strengths. It just depends which way the wind is blowing... the guys have run 2:03 on that course, but they had a strong tailwind that year. Both times I went there, we had no tailwind; it was just very hot or very cold.”
RUNNING TALENT
Lusapho is one of the quietest elite runners in SA – in terms of speaking. In fact, the phrase“ under the radar” seems appropriate in describing his character, and he prefers to let his feet do the talking. That began in primary school, in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape, where early success saw him selected for the Eastern Province under-13 cross-country team. In 2001 he started training with long-time coach and mentor Karen Zimmerman, joining her Atalanta Athletics Club training group in Port Elizabeth. She later became head coach at the University of Fort Hare, where Lusapho enrolled for a B. A. in Human Movement Studies. While there, he won numerous SASSU Student Champs titles and represented SA at the World Student Games.
Now based in East London, having followed Karen there, Lusapho says they’ ve developed not only an effective working relationship over the last 17 years, but also a strong bond.“ We’ ve got a good relationship and I think we make a good combination.
Images: Roger Sedres / ImageSA, Christiaan Kotze / SASPA & courtesy Hannover Marathon, Lusapho April
16 ISSUE 105 APRIL 2018 / www. modernathlete. co. za