Dust to diamonds - making of a marathon champion

THERE are few things as delightful for a sports journalist as witnessing a young sports person blossoming and eventually reaching the great heights their evident talent promised.

I’ve been privileged to see a number of those in my near three decades long experience in this industry.

I have vivid memories of a rough around the edges, yet clearly very talented Benedict McCarthy banging the goals in on the pretty dusty fields of the Vaal Reefs mines under the guidance of a very loud Shakes Mashaba. You can imagine my pleasure at writing about the shining diamond he became on football’s biggest stages, the FIFA World Cup (both at under 20 and senior level), the Olympics and the European Champions League.

As a boxing writer I remember watching Malcolm Klaasen pounding the punch bag in the gym under the tutelage of Manny Fernandez and thinking to myself, ‘the boy’s got talent’. It was only because my job required of me to behave professionally that I did not jump up with joy ringside at Emperor’s Palace when he beat Guyana’s Gary St Clair to become the IBF Super Featherweight champion.

In recent years, since becoming a runner, I’ve also reported on road-running. And to say I’ve had a front row seat to Glenrose Xaba’s progression from a truly talented yet highly insecure and shy athlete to a super confident multiple national champion and record holder would be an understatement.

I’ve seen her win the national cross-country title in Centurion; watched her hard at training as the only female member of the Sponge Group that is led by the great Stephen Mokoka; been at the 10km races - Spar Grand Prix and Absa RUN YOUR CTY – she has gone on to dominate and reported on her multiple national half marathon championship victories. Damn, I even saw her failed attempt at qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in the 10 000m at the national track and field championships in Cape Town.

Her growth, both as an athlete and personally have been phenomenal, Xaba now a super confident athlete behind the microphone and pleasant interviewee who is not afraid to make bold predictions about her races. And now, that’s a far cry from the first interview I had with her when she was still a student living at the University of Pretoria precinct in Hatfield. I’d be exaggerating if I said it was akin to pulling tooth because I actually got to know much about the girl who calls herself “Supercharger”. But you get my drift. I had to dig.

Xaba’s potential was recognised early on by an athlete of no less a stature as the great Elana Meyer who boldly predicted a few years ago that the lass from Mpumalanga would go on to break her national half marathon record. Xaba has represented the country at the World Championships in the distance and no doubt Meyer would have been disappointed that the youngster has continued to focus on the 10km distance. The 1992 Olympics 10 00m silver medallist had said back then that Xaba’s best distance is the 21.1km and that she should focus on it.

But Meyer was also delighted recently when Xaba smashed her long-standing 10km record with her scintillatingly fast 31:12 at the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Durban 10K in July.

She would be pleased too to hear that the 29-year-old is now moving up to the marathons and will make her debut in the longer distance at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on Sunday (October 20).

It is a progression her former coach, the revered Michael Sponge Seme, agrees is long overdue.

“Glenrose is ready to go to the marathons now,” Seme told me late in August “She’s done very well and I believe she’s build herself up to be able to compete.”

Xaba – now coached by Caster Semenya and her spouse Violet Semenya – has had the best season of her running career in which she won the SPAR Ladies Grand Prix courtesy of some dominant runs which saw her obliterate the superstar that is Ethiopian Tadu Nare and also registered some big wins in the Absa Run Your City Series as well as retaining her half marathon title.

Such is her confidence and form at the moment that it appears she can win just about every race she gets into. Of course, she’s not going to be putting herself under undue pressure to win next weekend’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, but you can bet she’s going to be super competitive.

Speaking after she’d won the Spar Grand Prix with her victory in Johannesburg last weekend, Xaba said she has set her sights on just having a good time on her marathon debut.

“The big one is Cape Town but I am just going there to enjoy myself. If the record comes, it comes and I will appreciate it and I will be grateful to achieve the SA record because it will show me that I’ve got the potential when it comes to marathons.”

Having finally gotten the better of Tadu Nare who dominated the Spar Grand Prix in recent years, Xaba can surely also hope to announce herself on the marathon stage with as big a bang as the Ethiopian did when she won her maiden 42.195km race in Barcelona.

There can be few things as exciting as witnessing promising talent flourishing.