SAYS sport man says by MANFRED SEIDLER
SPORT MAN
SAYS sport man says by MANFRED SEIDLER
The Winds of Change
After some years of South African road running being somewhat stuck in the doldrums in terms of global competition , there is a new generation of athletes that look set to make their mark on the world stage .
In the 1990s , South African road running was in a good space . Not only had South African been welcomed back into the international sporting community , after several decades of isolation , but Josia Thugwane won Olympic gold in the marathon in 1996 , Elana Meyer was setting World Records at 15km and the half marathon , Willie Mtolo won the New York Marathon while David Tsebe claimed the Berlin Marathon title , and South Africans were setting fast times and placing at major international races around the world .
In the early 2000 ’ s that baton was carried by the likes of Hendrick Ramaala and Gert Thys , who would win World Championship medals on the road and place in what is now known as the World Marathon Majors . Thys still holds the SA Marathon record of 2:06:33 , set in 1999 . But then came the doldrums . After 2005 , South African performances no longer ranked so highly on the international stage as Hendrick Ramaala , Shadrack Hoff , Enoch Skosanna and others started to come to the end of their competitive careers .
In recent years , it was left to Stephen Mokoka to fly the South African flag on the world stage , and for well over a decade he has been our only real world class performer at that level . On top of earning a very creditable 15th place at the World Cross Country Championships in 2011 , he was fifth at the World Marathon Championships in 2019 , and set the SA Records at 10km ( recently broken by Precious Mashele ) and the half marathon . Just recently , he narrowly missed out on the SA Marathon Record with his 2:06:42 this year in Osaka , Japan .
Precious Mashele is leading a new generation of SA men ’ s road running
Thabang Mosiako ’ s SA 21km Champs win signals his readiness for the World Champs
Things are Happening …
The winds of change are blowing , though . A combination of deep international competition on SA soil ( the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series is playing an instrumental role here ), former athletes becoming coaches and plotting long-term gains , and more money entering the South African road running scene , have contributed to the development of a new breed of SA road runner , and these athletes are once again starting to make waves .
Precious Mashele , a product of Ramaala ’ s training group , broke Mokoka ’ s SA 10km Record in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY GQEBERHA 10K in April this year , also pulling Thabang Mosiako to a sub-28min 10km in the process . Last year , Maxime Chaumeton became the first South African to go sub-28 on home soil ( in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K ), and Mbuleli Mathanga is a mere three seconds away from breaking 28 minutes as well .
Just this past month , Mosiako won the NMB SA Half Marathon Championships in Gqeberha with a blistering 1:00:29 , the fastest 21km time ever run in South Africa on a record-eligible course , smashing his previous best by 90 seconds and moving up to eighth on the SA all-time list . Credit here must also be given to Mathews Leeto , whose driving pace in this race contributed hugely to the fact that three South Africans ran sub-61 times . These are the next generation of SA road running , who are capable of mixing it with the international contingent again .
Mokoka , now the ‘ old dog ’ at 38 , still has a lot of fight in him , as his 2:06:42 marathon and 60:54 at the SA Half Champs demonstrate , and he will join Mosiako and Mashele as the SA team that will go to the World Half Marathon Championships in Riga , Latvia on 1 October . Mokoka has shown over and over just how good he is when competing internationally , and with Mashele within a whisker of breaking 60 minutes and Mosiako now getting close as well , seeing all three running sub-60 at the World Championships is possible . And that could well earn them a team medal , something not seen since 2000 , when Ramaala and Thys led South Africa to a team gold .
Bright Future Ahead
The sun is rising again on South African distance running on the road in the men ’ s arena , and while there is still much work to be done on the women ’ s front , there are signs that things are improving there , too , as Glenrose Xaba , Cian Oldknow , Cacisile Sosibo and Tayla Kavanagh are posting solid results at the 10km to 21km distances . I ’ m looking forward to seeing how far this new generation of running talent can go .
There is plenty of fight left in 38-year-old Stephen Mokoka
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 .
Images : Tobias Ginsberg , Action Photo SA & courtesy NMB Half Marathon
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