Two Oceans champ conquers Soweto in stunning victory

MATSHELANE MAMABOLO

ONALENNA Khonkhobe completed a rare South African road running double by adding the African Bank Soweto Marathon title to the TotalSports Two Oceans one he won earlier in the year.

The Nedbank Running Club star crossed the finish line in 2:13:36 — nearly 20 seconds ahead of second-placed Joseph Khoarahlane Seutlouli, whom he overtook with a little over a kilometre to go. The Hollywood Athletics Club athlete had broken from the bunch at about 38km and looked set for victory as he stretched his lead.

But Khonkhobe and Kenya’s Kipkemoi Kipsang did not give up the chase, and when the athletes approached the turn close to the FNB Stadium, the man who refers to himself as “head of the table” caught up, and from there on, there was only one winner.

Khonkhobe is a confident runner who always talks up his chances, and earlier in the year at the launch of the race, the lad who is trained by the revered Pio Mpolokeng boldly predicted the race would be the “Onalenna show.”

“On November 3, this (guy) will be my cameraman. It will be my first time running the Soweto Marathon, and I am going to do the same as I did in Two Oceans. It is time to do my show on November 3,” the athlete, who won the 56km Cape Town ultra in April had said at the July 4 event.

He lived up to his words, taking home the R25,000 prize money after a well-calculated run that saw him sticking with the lead bunch and waiting for the right time to pounce. His delight at the end knew no bounds.

“I am surprised. I don’t believe I am Onalenna today,” he said, adding that he used the same training programme as he did for the Two Oceans.

Khonkhobe said he’d planned to use title holder Ntsindiso Mphakathi as his marker until he realised he had to do his own thing: “I ran behind Tata, the defending champion, but I saw that he was waiting on time, and I said let me run my race.”

Always a tough race, the Soweto Marathon needs a strategy; otherwise, it will show you flames. Many runners began the race like a stolen car only to fade early on until the cream rose to the top.

Mphakathi, two-time Comrades Marathon champion Tete Dijana, national marathon champion Elroy Gelant, and former SA champions Tumelo Motlagale were in the lead group of about 15 runners that also included the likes of rookie Ian Slinger, who was paced by Gelant. Typically, the group kept being whittled down bit by bit through the hills just after Orlando Stadium as well as at the Putco Bus depot. At the turn into Main Reef Road, it was still anybody’s race with Dijana among those left behind.

Mphakathi looked to be struggling, and eventually, the Entsika Athletic Club finished in sixth place (2:20:03), saying afterward that he’d felt cramps creeping in and had to hold back a little lest he pushed too much and ended up having to quit. Khonkhobe stuck with the lead bunch, and when Seutlouli broke, he went after him although it appeared as though the man from Lesotho was going to be victorious.

“The last kilometre was tough because I gave Joseph the race, but I saw that he was struggling and I just went and ran,” Khonkhobe said of his surge to overtake the Hollywood runner.

“I am very happy because it is my first time running the Soweto Marathon. My stress was Vilakazi Street, but after I passed it, I believed that I would win because my mental strength was going back to strong.”

It was this mental strength that saw him overcome a mishap that would have derailed many a runner’s race. “At 36km, I missed my bottle and then I asked Elroy, ‘don’t you have a sachet?’ and he gave it to me,” he said of the running stalwart who was pacing his Potchefstroom training mate Ian Slinger, who finished his debut marathon in an impressive time of 2:20:52. Gelant quit the race at 40km even though he was in with a chance of finishing in the top five.

In the women’s race, Hollywood Athletic Club’s Neheng Khathala of Lesotho won on debut in 2:43:07 ahead of Margaret Jepchumba and Worke Degu Amena.