Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 146, Nov 2021 November 2021 | Page 17

Another light racer , three-time SA 10km Champ Precious Mashele of his career where he too struggled to make ends meet . And his consistent results and glittering career have shown that it works .

Another local athlete showing that racing sparingly works is Melikhaya Frans , who had a breakthrough year in 2021 . The 31-year-old took two minutes and 22 seconds off his marathon best as he finished sixth in the Cape Town Marathon , clocking 2:11:28 and qualifying for the World Marathon Championships in Oregon in 2022 . He set four personal bests in 2021 over 5000m , 10km , 15km and the marathon , and that was while running only six races in 2021 . our all-time greats , Hendrick Ramaala , and now that he is coaching three-time SA 10km Champion Precious Mashele , he is giving the same advice to his young star .

After the Olympics , where Mashele raced in the 5000m , Hendrick ’ s answer was “ he must rest now ,” when there was talk of Precious running the Cape Town Marathon . And what was the end result ? A massive PB in the half marathon when he finished fourth in the Poznan Half Marathon in Poland on 17 October , with Precious clocking 60 minutes on the nose to take 24 seconds off his previous best , set exactly a year earlier at the World Half Marathon Championships , also in Poland . Precious then went on to win his third SA 10km Championships on 31 October in Durban , in a new personal best time of 28:11 , shaving 15 seconds off his previous best of 28:26 .

His friend and rival , Stephen Mokoka , finished second in 28:15 , a mere two weeks after winning the Cape Town Marathon , but a look at his racing calendar for 2021 reveals that he actually did not race much . At the age of 36 , Stephen was still able to show a clean pair of heels to nearly the whole field in what was the deepest field assembled in a 10km race in SA in many a year , as he only raced five times this year .

That has been a hallmark of Stephen ’ s career : He simply does not race that much . Most athletes in South Africa will struggle to survive financially If they were to race sparingly , as they rely on prize money to put food on the table , but Stephen has always been adamant that racing sparingly is the way to go , even in the early days

Less is Much More …

While this is a philosophy that is followed the world over by top athletes and coaches , it seems that in South Africa more is better , rather than less is more , for many of the country ’ s top road runners . Yet the best of our athletes and some in the next generation , like Tayla Kavanagh , have proven categorically that less is more . We need to find the means for our top athletes to race less overall , and that means having enough toplevel events with big enough prize money to ensure that they do not over-race , and are therefore at their best every time they line up .

About the Author

Manfred Seidler is a freelance sport journalist who has been in the industry since 1994 , in both print media and broadcasting , covering four Olympic Games for SABC Radio , and producing various athletics shows for the SABC . Follow him on Twitter : @ sportmansa ; Facebook : Sport Man SA ; Instagram : sportman _ sa .

Tayla Kavanagh on her way to another PB in 2021

Tayla Tops the 10km Table

Thanks to racing sparingly from late August to late October , only lining up in three out of the six SPAR Grand Prix races and then running the SA Champs race in the Absa DURBAN 10K CITYRUN , with several weeks of rest between each race , Tayla Kavanagh was able to set four PB times in consecutive races . This not only saw her win the SA 10km women ’ s title , but she also posted the fastest time of the year by a South African woman , as well as the joint second-fastest time , and three of her times feature in the top nine performances of the year . Her new PB of 32:10 has also moved her up to fourth on the all-time list of SA performers for the distance , and all this success can be attributed not only to talent , hard work and coaching , but also to being well rested each time she has lined up .

1 32:10 Tayla Kavanagh Durban 31 Oct 21 2 32:51 Tayla Kavanagh ( 2 ) PE 9 Oct 21

Images : Tobias Ginsberg , Cuan Walker , Anthony Grote and Reg Caldecott

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