Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 113, December 2018 | Page 14

ROAD RUNNING
Xolani so welcome”, says Hein. “The night before the
race he was a guest of honour at the pre-race function
to tell his story. Then on race day he was called up to
prize-giving to receive a special award, even though
he had not made the cut-off. Next year they want him
back and want to make him a race ambassador.”
No
Mountain
Too High
Incredible Comrades
Xolani shot to fame earlier this year when he finished
the 2018 Comrades Marathon, crossing the line on
his crutches in the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium,
after being on the road for 16 hours 18 minutes and
59 seconds to cover the 90km from Pietermaritzburg
to Durban. The cut-off at Comrades is 12 hours, but
he was given permission by the Comrades Marathon
Association to start earlier than the rest of the field, at
12:30am instead of 5:30am.
Thanks to his heroics at Comrades, his story is now
well known. Losing his right leg to cancer at a young
age. Ending up begging on the streets of Centurion,
just south of Pretoria, to fund a Nyaope addiction
and living under a bridge. Nyaope, incidentally, is the
highly addictive drug of choice on the streets now,
and its main ingredients are a lethal combination of
heroin and dagga.
Xolani Luvuno has clearly won the hearts of South Africa, evidenced by the
support he gets on the roads whenever he runs a race, and when he completed
the recent Voet of Afrika Marathon, he literally had a police escort into town,
with sirens blaring and lights flashing. He is an inspiration to all, and his story will
undoubtedly be told over and over, because for this man, no challenge is too big.
The turnaround in his life came a few years ago, when
Hein saw Xolani begging on the streets. Every day
he saw this one-legged man standing by the side
of the road, relying on the generosity of the passing
motorists, before finding ‘shelter’ in the evenings
under a bridge. One day Hein stopped and spoke to
Xolani, whose first words to him were “Hello father,
how are you?” Xolani told Hein that he had been
orphaned at a very young age and lost his leg to bone
marrow cancer. “But there was something about
Xolani. He was so open and friendly. I immediately
H
aving spent virtually his whole life on crutches,
Xolani Luvuno has developed an incredibly
strong upper body… And he needed that
strength when he took on the notoriously tough
Voet of Africa in Bredasdorp in October, down in the
Southern Cape. The description of the race says it all:
“The first 13km are on farm road before you ascend
the infamous Anysberg. In itself, the climb is not too
bad, or can compare to many other marathons in the
country, a climb of around 300m over 3km from 13km
to 16km. However, the climb is jeep track and single
track, and some stiff climbing is involved!”
This did not deter Xolani though, because no
mountain is too high for this incredible athlete, but it
14
was a tough day for him, says Hein Venter, Xolani’s
coach, mentor, “father” and unofficial spokesman. “It
wasn’t only the climb, though. There was an incredibly
strong wind, and at one stage Xolani was literally
blown off his feet!”
For the record, Xolani went through halfway in 3:03
and covered the second half of endlessly rolling hills
in three hours exactly, crossing the line in 6:03:21 to
miss the official cut-off by just three minutes. He was
nevertheless given a hero’s welcome at the finish, and
when he went on stage at prize-giving, the 500-strong
crowd who had stayed to enjoy the post-race
festivities rose as one to give him a standing ovation.
“The race and the community in Bredasdorp made
ISSUE 113 DECEMBER 2018 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Xolani and Hein after the Comrades
– BY MANFRED SEIDLER