Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 108, July 2018 | Page 12

ROAD RUNNING
Winning the Comrades Marathon is considered one of the pinnacles of
achievement in South African road running. It brings a massive payday,
makes you a household name and really puts you on the running map, with
sponsorships, endorsements and media opportunities that follow, as Bongmusa
Mthembu found out in 2014. However, winning it again takes things to another
level, let alone a third time! – BY SEAN FALCONER
I
t wasn’t so very long ago that Bongmusa Mthembu
was struggling to find work and just keeping
his running ticking over, having moved from his
hometown of Bulwer to nearby Pietermaritzburg
in the hopes of finding more opportunities. “It was
hard to get a job, but eventually I got hired as a
bricklayer, and at that time I was just training to keep
my body healthy,” he says. “Then in 2004 I started to
enter some of the local races, and in 2005 I won the
Maritzburg Marathon, even without proper training.
That was when I started thinking about taking part
in the Comrades Marathon, and in my mind I already
Louis Massyn and
Barry Holland
had the dream of winning Comrades one day.”
He ran his first Comrades in 2006 and earned a
silver medal in 6:25:19, followed by two more silvers
and a highest finish of 31 st in 2007. Then in 2009 he
rocketed up the placings as he came home seventh
for his first gold medal, followed by third position in
2010, 12 th in 2011 and the runner-up position in 2012.
He didn’t finish in 2013, but in June 2014, he set out
from his home city and clocked 5:28:29 to win the
Down Run and fulfil the promise had shown over the
preceding years.
Prior to this year’s race, just nine men had managed
to win the race three or more times in its nearly
100-year history, and of the further eight men with
two wins to their name, Bongmusa was the only
one running in 2018. Furthermore, just 11 men had
ever managed to win the Comrades in back-to-back
years, and there again Bongmusa was the only man in
this year’s field in the running to change that record.
Happily for the affable Arthur Ford AC runner, he was
able to do both in his 13 th Comrades run.
Having broken away from the chasing pack on Cowies
Hill, with about 19km to go, Bongmusa stormed
home to break the tape in 5:26:34, beating second-
placed Joseph Mputhi by 8 mintes 35 seconds. This
made him the first South African to win the race in
consecutive years since Bruce Fordyce last managed
this feat in 1987 and 1988 (the last two of his eight
consecutive wins from 1981 to 1988), and just the
third man since Bruce to record back-to-back wins.
BACK TO BACK MEN’S
COMRADES WINNERS
1922-25 Arthur Newton (4)
1933-34 Hardy Ballington
1953-54 Wally Hayward
1956-57 Gerald Walsh
1963-64 Jackie Mekler
1969-71 Dave Bagshaw (3)
1974-75 Derek Preiss
1976-78 Alan Robb (3)
1981-88 Bruce Fordyce (8)
2007-08 Leonid Shvetsov
2009-11 Stephen Muzhingi (3)
2017-18 Bongmusa Mthembu
New Leaders of the Famous 40s
There was big news this year in the Quadruple Green Club, the
exclusive group of runners who have completed the Comrades
Marathon 40 times or more. To begin with, the club’s membership
grew to 17 as Johann van Eeden came home in 11:42:33 for his 40 th
medal, after missing out in 2017.
However, the big news was that Barry Holland (10:53:56) and Louis
Massyn (11:46:39) both finished the race for a 46th consecutive year
to pass long-time Club leader Dave Rogers, who finished on 45
medals in 2013. Amongst the other ‘Quadruples’ who were running,
Vic Boston moved up to 42 while Mike Cowling and Wietsche van
der Westhuizen moved up to 41.
The updated Quadruple Club Membership List now looks as follows,
with runners who medalled in 2018 marked in bold:
12
WHERE FEW HAVE TROD
ISSUE 108 JULY 2018 / www.modernathlete.co.za
46 Barry Holland
46 Louis Massyn
45 Dave Rogers
42 Clive Crawley
42 Alan Robb
42 Dave Lowe
42 Vic Boston
41 David Williams
41 Tommy Neitski
41 Zwelitsha Gono
41 Mike Cowling
41 Wietsche van der Westhuizen
40 Kenny Craig
40 Riel Hugo
40 Boysie van Staden
40 Shaun Wood
40 Johann van Eeden
Meanwhile, in the women’s field, all-time leader Kleintjie
van Schalkwyk took her medal tally to 34, while Patricia
Fisher became just the third woman to reach 30 medals,
coming home in 11:43:42 to earn her Triple Green, having
missed the cut-off last year. Former winner Tilda Tearle
also reached the 30-medal milestone last year.
Jetline
A Select
s
e
d
a
r
m
o
C
Club
A disappointing 17 th place followed in 2015, but he
bounced back with third place in 2016 for another
gold, and then in November that year he added the
SA Record for 100km to his list of achievements,
clocking 6:24:05 to finish second at the 2016 IAU
World 100km Championships in Spain and finally
beat Bruce Fordyce’s 27-year-old SA Record by 62
seconds! That cemented his status as one of SA’s
premier ultra-runners, but more was to come. In 2017
he won his second Comrades title, crossing the line in
Pietermaritzburg in 5:35:34 to add an Up Run title to
his Down Run win of 2014. That already put him into a
select group of men with multiple Comrades wins, but
in 2018 even more glory was to come his way.