Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 61, August 2014 | Page 20

Ma

living legend

T

he race was on for the tenth and final men’s
gold medal in the 1996 Comrades Marathon as
the totally unknown debutant Donovan Wright
fought his way up Polly Shortts hill alongside
World 100km Champion Constantin Santalov.
Most pundits predicted the Russian would take
that last gold, but what they didn’t know was
just how strong Donovan’s fighting spirit was.
“When I saw him walk, I told myself, ‘Don’t walk,’
and that allowed me to pull clear,” says Donovan.
“The moment I hit the grass will stay with me
forever. That day defined my athletic career:
Nobody expected a Coloured boy from Cape
Town, running in UWC colours, to be up there.”
That fighting spirit has also come to define
Donovan away from running as he has battled
various forms of cancer since first being
diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 1993. He overcame
that and returned to running, being selected for
the 1995 World Student Games while studying
human resources management at UWC. Then
came his 1996 gold at Comrades, followed by
the 1997 SA Marathon Champs title, and in 1998
and 1999 he brought home gold medals in the
Two Oceans (eighth, then sixth), followed by his
greatest achievement, a fourth place overall in
the 2000 Comrades, and first SA runner home, in
a time of 5:35:37.
Later that year he finished seventh in the World
100km Champs, but the headaches he had been
suffering became steadily worse, and in October
2000 a tumour was found near his brain stem.
He underwent four brain operations, with the
fourth one leaving him deaf in one ear, and he
also needed two further operations to repair
damage to his eye. Somehow he managed to
fight his way back and ran the Comrades in
2001, managing an incredible 137th place in

20

Images: Courtesy Donovan Wright

Courage, fighting spirit and
perseverance… that is how one could
describe former SA Marathon Champion
and Comrades and Two Oceans gold
medallist Donovan Wright’s running
career. But those exact same words
could be \